Propositional Knowing

• Related to the ancient Greek notion of dianoia.
• "Knowing that" something is true.
• Stored in semantic memory as knowledge of facts.
• Results in beliefs.
• Closely tied with language and justification.
• Our current culture is a kind of propositional tyranny (overly fixated on this type of knowing).
• Standard of realness: true or false; conviction; about honing logic to make accurate truth statements.

Procedural Knowing

• Related to the ancient Greek notion of techne.
• "Knowing how" to do something.
• Stored in procedural memory as embodied skill.
• Results in skills and techniques.
• Can be trained.
• Standard of realness: powerful or not; sense that interactions with the world are making a difference and altering the course of events.

Perspectival Knowing

• Related to the ancient Greek notion of noesis.
• "Knowing what it is like" to be here and now.
• Stored in episodic memory as contextual awareness.
• Results in perspectives.
• Knowing through your state of consciousness; a point of view; situational awareness; embodied perception.
• Standard of realness: presence; a sense of being "here and now"; truth as realization.

Participatory Knowing

• Related to the ancient Greek notion of gnosis.
• "Knowing by being with" Self and World.
• Stored in a strange kind of memory called "The Self".
• Results in affinities and affordances.
• You and reality have been co-shaped to fit together. The Self participates in creating World, and the World participates in creating the Self (a transjective experience).
• Standard of realness: a sense of being connected and in a dialogue with reality; belonging; meaning in life.

Footnotes

1. The 4P's taxonomy was created by Dr. John Vervaeke and first seen in Awakening from the Meaning Crisis. ↩