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I’m probably making it way too difficult. It’s likely one of those pronouncements that neither invites nor deserves a response. I can complete the sentence with whatever pops into my head, and no one cares. Everything I know, I learned from my dog. Everything I know, I learned from my wise grandfather. Perhaps, “Everything I know, I learned in Kindergarten.”
As you see, most anything I say to complete the sentence can stand on its own. Everything I know, I learned from riding my pony in the woods. The idea is that all it takes is appending a potential source of knowledge, no matter how improbable. But where did I really learn everything I know?
The first step toward finding the answer for me is to simplify. There are the things I know, the things I only think I know, the things I think I don’t know, and the things about which I don’t have a clew. What do you think? Does that pretty well cover the possibilities?
Today’s prompt is limiting me to the things I know. What I only think I know and all the rest are out of bounds; so, let me see if I can figure out how I came to know the things I know. What is the source of that knowledge? Perhaps more to the point, what makes me so sure about the validity of what I put into the “I know” box? Along with knowing where the knowledge came from, I also need to know why I am so sure it is right.
The source of what I know matters. It’s the “Everything I know, I learned from” idea. Philosophers have argued about this issue for eons or at least for a very long time. The central question is whether there is intrinsic knowledge along with experiential knowledge or just what we come to know from experience. Are there things we are born knowing, things that are just there for us as a benefit of being human or have we learned everything we know along the way?
I’ll leave that one to you and the philosophers and opt for “Everything I know, I learned from experience.” That takes in many types of experience; but nonetheless, experience is the only path to knowledge.
Now that I have settled on that, I can more easily complete the sentence. Everything I know, I learned from many and varied experiences. I learned from parents and other teachers, from libraries and lectures, from books and Google, from friends and from just hanging around, from touching the hot stove and myriad positive and not so positive experiences. Life and living have taught me a lot. Although I have mostly forgotten the specifics, I generally know where all of that knowing came from. Some of it came through serious effort on my part and much of it came unbidden; but most of it simply accumulated unnoticed.
That leaves the million-dollar question. Do I really know what I know or do I just think I know? I know it hurt the last time I touched the hot stove and also know it will hurt if I touch it again. I would call that direct knowledge. I know a lot of if A then B kinds of things. Some are simple like touching the hot stove and others are very complex like not keeping track of and responsibly managing current expenses in relation to existing assets and future revenues is a sure way to end up between the proverbial rock and a hard place. Direct knowledge is a very good thing and only comes through experience.
Fortunately, I don’t have to experience everything before I can know it. I can rely on the experience and wisdom of others. I think of this as acquired knowledge. Unfortunately, acquired knowledge is only as reliable as its source. At best, that makes it only probably valid. Here comes the rub. Most of what I know turns out to be acquired knowledge, only probably true. There is another pocket of knowledge that is even a little more tenuous. It includes stuff I believe to be true and valid but have no direct experience or acquired support for my belief. It’s just part of my reality.
If I think about the sum of my knowledge as the loosely organized contents of a big box from which I pull bits and pieces as needed to function in the real world, the prompt changes. Instead of its being, “Everything I know, I learned from …,” it becomes, “What I know right now that is governing what I am about to do may be definitely true, probably true, or only true because I believe it’s true;” so I will proceed ….” That’s the call each of us gets to make for ourselves. – Ain’t life grand?
That’s it. Another prompt goes into the book. I hope you decide to join me when I pull another prompt from my iPhone and see where it takes me. I will be doing that soon. In the meanwhile, enjoy a musical interlude and give yourself a few minutes to consider what you know and how sure you can be about being right.