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| whether | what | how | why | Showing 39 examples. Read an article about the foursome. | ~ year |
| human | bread | teeth | God | Lithuanian and Sanskrit share an old saying which means "God gave us teeth, God will give us bread." • Lithuanian: Dievas dave dantis, Dievas duos duonos • Sanskrit: Devas adat datas, Devas dasyati dhanas This saying, which may well date back to Proto-Indo-European, relates God and human, teeth and bread. The Baltic Languages #91  |
-3000 | |
| ignorance | false opinion | true opinion | wisdom | Greek philosopher Plato, in his Republic, distinguished four levels of knowledge: • Wisdom is the knowledge which advises, not about any particular thing in the State, but about the whole, and considers how a State can best deal with itself and with other States • True opinion is instilled. ...we were contriving influences which would prepare them to take the dye of the laws in perfection, and the colour of their opinion about dangers and of every other opinion was to be indelibly fixed by their nature and training, not to be washed away by such potent lyes as pleasure... or by sorrow, fear and desire... and this sort of universal adhering power of true opinion in conformity with about real and false dangers I call and maintain to be courage • False opinion is popular opinion, simply doing and thinking as others do, or as one fancies. • Ignorance is that which is concerned with non-being. Plato. The Republic. #122 |
-375 | |
| conjecture | belief | thought | understanding | Plato, in his Republic, in the Analogy of the divided line, distinguishes both the visible (what become) and the intelligible (what is) into two parts: • conjecture or illusion (εἰκασία eikasia) perceives shadows or reflections, as with unexamined ordinary experience, subject to guessing • belief (πίστις pistis) regarding what is visible, probable, predictable • thought (διάνοια dianoia) is knowledge which considers the visible world, as a reflection of the ideal world, and proceeds by mathematical, abstract reasoning to contemplate the ideal world • understanding (νόησις noesis) is knowledge that is focused entirely on ideal forms, exploring the ideal realm dialectically, philosophically Wikipedia: Analogy of the divided line #123 |
-375 | |
| mixture of the unlimited and the limited | unlimited | limited | cause of the mixture of the unlimited and the limited | Plato (c.427-348 BCE) wrote his dialogue Philebus between 360 and 347 BCE. In it, Socrates divides all of reality into four categories: • the unlimited (ápeiron), whatever can be increased or decreased, as with "warm" or "cold" • the limited (péras), as with mathematical quantities • the mixture of the unlimited and the limited • the cause of the mixture of the unlimited and the limited, namely measure and order Wikipedia: Philebus #37 |
-353 | |
| move | look | listen | speak | Chinese paragon Confucius (c.551-c.479 BCE), in his Analects, says Look not at what is contrary to propriety; listen not to what is contrary to propriety; speak not what is contrary to propriety; make no movement which is contrary to propriety Wikipedia: Three wise monkeys #116 |
-350 | |
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final | formal | efficient | material | Aristotle (384-322 BCE) in his Physics and his Metaphysics, spoke of four kinds of reasons - four causes - that could be given as explanations why. • material cause is the natural, latent potential of the raw material, as with marble • formal cause is the pattern or form by which a thing is of a particular type, as with an iconic image • efficient cause is the agent which causes change and drives transient motion, as with a chisel • final cause is the end or purpose for the sake of which a thing is done, as with a statue Wikipedia: Four causes Stanford: Aristotle on Causality #41 |
-329 |
| speak | see | hear | deliberate | Confucianist philosopher Xun Kuang (c.310-c.238), in his Xunzi, teaches: [The gentleman] makes his eyes not want to see what is not right, makes his ears not want to hear what is not right, makes his mouth not want to speak what is not right, and makes his heart not want to deliberate over what is not right Wikipedia: Three wise monkeys #125 |
-250 | |
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word is taken away | word does not take root | word is choked | word bears fruit | Jesus explained his parable of the sower: Don’t you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables? The farmer sows the word. • The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. • These in the same way are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy. They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble. • Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word, and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. • Those which were sown on the good ground are those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit, some thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times.” Wikipedia: Parable of the Sower #39 |
70 |
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spirit | know | not know | truth | In the Gospel of John, Jesus tells the Samaritan woman at the well You worship that which you don’t know. We worship that which we know; for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:22-24 #789 |
100 |
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stone as thing | stone as appearance | stone as location | In the Gospels, Jesus fasts for 40 days and then is tempted in three ways, all related to stone: • The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.” • Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t dash your foot against a stone.’" • Again, the devil took him to an exceedingly high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. He said to him, “I will give you all of these things, if you will fall down and worship me.” Wikipedia: Temptation of Christ #40 |
100 | |
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Nirmanakaya (Transformation body) | Sambhogakaya (Enjoyment body) | Dharmakaya (Reality body) | The Trikāya (three body) doctrine, त्रिकाय, 三身, posits that a Buddha has three distinct bodies, aspects, facets of enlightenment, in which they simultaneously dwell: • Dharmakaya (Reality body) is the ultimate reality, the essence of enlightenment itself, including emptiness, Buddha nature, and pure existence beyond material and spiritual forms • Sambhogakaya (Enjoyment body) is the bliss and reward of Buddhahood, lived by the divine Buddhas of the Buddha realms, the result of spiritual practice in their spiritual journey, fulfilling vows and commitments • Nirmanakaya (Transformation body) is the physical appearance of a Buddha in historical world, allowing them to bridge divine and human, make accesible the teachings, interact with and guide sentient beings on their path to enlightenment The Yogacara school formally systematized these distinct ideas. Wikipedia: Trikaya #101 |
300 | |
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constitution 精 | natural energy 气 | mental agency 神 | alignment 无为 |
Traditional Chinese medicine identifies three energy centers ( 精 jīng is one's essence, one's favorable constitution, composed of congenital, prenatal Yin and postnatal, acquired Yang, manifest in good facial structure, teeth, hair, strong adrenals or kidneys 气 qi is one's vapor, breath, vital force, the natural energy of the universe, which is purified from jing in the Lower Dantian, "the golden stove", the root of the tree of life, the foundation of rooted standing, grounding, breathing and body awareness 神 shén is one's vigor, enthusiasm, vitality of mind, one's power of agency, divine spirit, which is purified from qi in the Middle Dantian, "the crimson palace", at the level of the heart, associated with the health of the internal organs, notably the thymus gland 无为 wúwéi is inaction, effortless action, emptiness, staying aligned and fully realized, which is purified from shen in the Upper Dantian, "the muddy pellet", at the forehead between the eyebrows, at the third eye, associated with the pineal gland Wikipedia: Dantian Wikipedia: Three Treasures (traditional Chinese medicine) Wikipedia: Neidan #128 |
559 |
| matter | form | agent | finality | Thomas Aquinas, in his Commentary on the Sentences of Peter Lombard, demonstrated that Aristotle's four causes are the only causes. He ordered them: matter is made perfect by form, form is made perfect by agent, and agent is made perfect by finality. Wikipedia: Four causes #44 |
1256 | |
| storehouse of karma | sensory integration | abstract inner thoughts | pure coexistence | Japanese Buddhist priest Nichiren (1222-1282) referred to the ninth consciousness (amala in Sanskrit) as the palace of the body, which can be accessed by chanting Namu-myoho-renge-kyo. In Buddhism, the first five consciousnessess are the senses: touch, taste, sight, hearing, smell. • Sixth consciousness is the processing and integration of the sensory input, identifying what it communicates, enabling judgments, yielding the sentient mind. • Seventh consciousness (mano) is directed towards one's inner thoughts, without sensory input, deals with the abstract, distinguishes good and evil, ourselves and others, is aware of the self, can attach or detach, be assertive of one's identity. • Eighth consciousness (alaya) is the storehouse which accumulates all of one's karmic energy from interacting with others, the causes and effects of one's actions, a lifetime's thoughts, words and deeds, which persists into one's subsequent lives, flowing onward. • Ninth consciousness (amala) is pure, the Buddha nature, which karma cannot tarnish, the core of all energy, the source for all mental and spiritual activity, coexisting peacefully with all life. Wikipedia: The Nine Consciousness Nichiren. The Real Aspect of the Gohonzon. Nichiren Buddhism Library. Nine Consciousnesses #574 |
1270 | |
| material | efficient | form | Francis Bacon, in his "Advancement of Learning", spoke interms of Plato's notion of ideal forms and Aristotle's four causes in asserting that natural science considers only material and efficient causes (matter and forces) but not forms. He thought of forms as ideal laws of nature. Wikipedia: Four causes #47 |
1605 | ||
| tribe | cave | market | theatre | Francis Bacon, the founder of empiricism, in his "Novum Organum", warned that objective reasoning must reject four idols of received doctrine: • idols of the tribe (Idola tribus) are rooted in human nature, our physical senses, the false regularities they presuppose. • idols of the cave (Idola specus) are prejudices specific to each individual soul, their inclinations and education. • idols of the market (Idola fori) are conventions that facilitate fellowship and commerce but introduce errors and confusion through badly defined words and fallacious ideas. • idols of the theatre (Idola theatri) are culturally received philosophical dogmas which are simply fictions. Wikipedia: Novum Organum #45 |
1620 | |
| physics | physics: mechanics | metaphysics | In "Novum Organum", Francis Bacon distinguished • metaphysics, the investigation of eternal and immutable forms, fundamental laws • physics, the investigation of the efficient cause (mechanics) and of matter, and the latent process and latent configuration, what ordinarily occurs in nature Wikipedia: Four causes #48 |
1620 | ||
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evidence | likelihood | posterior probability | hypothesis | Reverend Thomas Bayes stated Bayes Theorem for inverting conditional probabilities. The theorem appears symmetrical yet is typically interpreted to relate hypothesis H and evidence E • H is a hypothesis that can be affected by data. P(H) is the prior probability, the estimate of the probability of H before the evidence is observed. • E is the evidence, new data not used to compute the prior probability. P(E) is the overall probability of observing E, the marginal likelihood. • P(H | E) is the posterior probability, the probability of H after E has been observed. It is a function of the hypothesis. • P(E | H) is the likelihood, the probability of observing E given H, thus the compatibility of the evidence with the hypothesis. It is a function of the evidence. Wikipedia: Bayesian inference Wikipedia: Bayes' theorem #516 |
1763 |
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insertion | injection | surjection | collapse | French mathematician Évariste Galois developed the notions of normal group N, quotient group Q, solvable group and with them, the extension problem of what groups G are extensions of N by Q. In modern terminology, the extension problem is described by a short exact sequence, consisting of four group homomorphisms, where the image of one homomorphism is the kernel of the next homomorphism. • e:1→N is the insertion of the trivial group 1 into N • f:N→G is an injection from N into G • g:G→Q is a surjection from G into Q • h:Q→1 is the collapse of Q into the trivial group 1 Wikipedia: Group extension Wikipedia: Évariste Galois #592 |
1832 |
| knowledge | intelligence | wisdom | Clarence Walker Barron, founder of modern financial journalism, gave a talk to his employees: Knowledge, Intelligence and Wisdom: an Address to the Staff of Dow, Jones & Co. Wikipedia: DIKW pyramid #56 |
1927 | ||
| expected value | state | observable | measurement | The Dirac-von Neumann axioms of quantum mechanics, formulated in terms of a complex Hilbert space H of countably infinite dimension, suppose for a quantum system that • states ψ are rays in H, in other words, unit vectors of H up to complex scalar multiples • observables are self-adjoint operators A on H, that is, <Ax,y>=<x,Ay> for all x,y ∈ H • measurements assign states to observables • the expected value of observable A for a system in state ψ, given repeated measurements, is <Aψ,ψ>=<ψ,Aψ> Wikipedia: Dirac-von Neumann axioms #52 |
1932 | |
| information | knowledge | wisdom | English modernist poet T.S.Eliot wrote in his Choruses, for the pageant play "The Rock": Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? This is cited as an inspiration for the data-information-knowledge-wisdom pyramid. Wikipedia: DIKW pyramid #55 |
1934 | ||
| what and how many? | how? | for whom? | Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Samuelson authored the "canonical" American economics textbook, first published in 1948 and most recently in 2019. He wrote in the first edition: Any society... must somehow meet three economic problems. 1. What commodities shall be produced and in what quantities? That is, how much and which of many alternative goods and services shall be produced? 2. How shall they be produced? That is, by whom and with what resources and in what technological manner are they to be produced? 3. For whom are they to be produced? That is, who is to enjoy and get the benefit of the goods and services provided? Paul Samuelson. Economics: An Introductory Analysis Wikipedia: Economic problem #355 |
1948 | ||
| causa materialis | causa formalis | causa efficiens | causa finalis | Martin Heidegger, in "The Question Concerning Technology", echoed Aristotle's fourfold causality, distinguishing • causa materialis, the material, the matter out of which something is made • causa formalis, the form, the shape into which the material enters • causa finalis, the end, in relation to which the thing required is determined as to its form and matter • causa efficiens, which brings about the effect that is the finished thing The Question Concerning Technology #50 |
1954 | |
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postpending identity arrow | arrow | prepending arrow | extracting arrow | Japanese mathematician Nobuo Yoneda is known for the Yoneda lemma, the fundamental theorem of category theory. A special case is the Yoneda embedding Hom(A,B) ≅ Hom(Hom(B,_),Hom(A,_)) which relates • Hom(A,B) arrows from object A to object B • Hom(Hom(B,_),Hom(A,_)) ways of transforming an arrow from B to X into an arrow from A to X by prepending an arrow from A to B • the trivial postpending of an identity arrow from B to B, yielding the arrow from A to B • the extracting of an arrow from A to B from all arrows that extend it from A to X by way of all relationships from B to X, which is to say, A to B is known by all of its friends A to B to X Andrius Kulikauskas. The Yoneda Embedding Expresses Whether, What, How, Why. #325 |
1955 |
| psychomotor | cognitive | affective | A committee of educators chaired by Benjamin Bloom developed Bloom's taxonomy as a framework for categorizing educational goals. Learning objectives are divided into three broad domains. • cognitive (knowledge-based) with six levels: Knowledge, Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation • affective (emotion-based) with five levels: Receiving, Responding, Valuing, Organizing, Characterizing • psychomotor (action-based), categorized in 1972 by Elizabeth Simpson with seven levels: Perception, Set, Guided response, Mechanism, Complex overt response, Adaptation, Origination Wikipedia: Bloom's taxonomy #623 MP |
1956 | ||
| structure | activity or trait | causation and development | adaptation and evolution | Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen in "On Aims and Methods in Ethology, extending the work of Julian Huxley, distinguished four levels of analysis of animal behavior. • Evolutionary (ultimate) explanations why evolved the structures it has ◦ Function (adaptation) why this structure helps with a reproductive or survival problem in the current environment ◦ Phylogeny (evolution) why this structure evolved in the species over many generations • Proximate explanations how an organism's structures function ◦ Mechanism (causation) how the structures work mechanically ◦ Ontogeny (development) how an individual's structures developed from DNA Wikipedia: Tinbergen's four questions #49 |
1963 | |
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S₂ | ¬S₁ | ¬S₂ | S₁ | Lithuanian-French semiotician Algirdas Greimas, in "Semantique Structurale", applied Aristotle's logical square of opposition to cultural concepts, yielding the semiotic square. • S₁ is a positive seme, such as "everything" • S₂ is a negative seme, the opposite of S₁, such as "nothing" • ¬S₁ is not S₁, not positive, such as "something" • ¬S₂ is not S₂, not negative, such as "anything" Wikipedia: Semiotic square #90 |
1966 |
| iconic | enactive | symbolic | American educational cognitive psychologist Jerome Seymour Bruner introduced enaction as learning by doing: Any domain of knowledge (or any problem within that domain of knowledge) can be represented in three ways: • by a set of actions appropriate for achieving a certain result (enactive representation); • by a set of summary images or graphics that stand for a concept without defining it fully (iconic representation); • and by a set of symbolic or logical propositions drawn from a symbolic system that is governed by rules or laws for forming and transforming propositions (symbolic representation) Wikipedia: Enactivism Jerome Seymour Bruner. Toward a Theory of Instruction #476 |
1966 | ||
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self | linear | relational | interrelational | American social architect John Ray Hamann formulated relationalism, which postulates that there are only four possible types of relations and they constitute four relational orders. • self relation - a relation by which a system is related to itself • linear relation - a relation connecting two systems • relational relation - a relation relating a system with a relation • interrelational relation - a relation interrelating two other relations Jere Northrop. The Relational Symmetry Paradigm #813 |
1968 |
| data | information | Nicholas Henry, an American scholar of public administration, distinguished • data, the raw facts that do not change us • information, the raw facts that do change us Nicholas L. Henry. Knowledge Management: A New Concern for Public Administration. Public Administration Review. Vol. 34, No. 3 (May - Jun., 1974), pp. 189-196. #57 |
1974 | |||
| know basic assumptions | know what actions to perform | know the significance of basic assumptions | American ethicist John Kekes observed that knowledge involved in wisdom concerns means to good ends. • knowledge of means is knowing what actions to perform, which is relatively simple • knowledge of good ends is knowledge of the significance of the most basic assumptions of human experience, which mark off the limits to human possibility • basic assumption include that I have a body with limbs and head, there exist other people and many familiar material objects, I was born, have matured, am aging, will die, I perceive the world through my senses, I am capable of thought, feeling, imagination, will, I can learn from the past and plan for the future. John Kekes. Wisdom. American Philosophical Quarterly. Wikiversity: Wisdom: Defining Wisdom #771 LB |
1983 | ||
| primordial | constructive | instrumental | Sociologists have developed competing theories about ethnic identity. • Primordialism. Cultural differences are real and identities are fixed. (Clifford Geertz. Primordial and Civic Ties. 1963) • Constructivism. Identities are subjective and constructed from social interactions. (Hugh Seton-Watson. Nations and States: An Inquiry Into the Origins of Nations and the Politics of Nationalism. 1977) • Instrumentalism. Identities result from leaders who emphasize traditions, fabricate myths and manipulate narratives for economic and political advantage. (The Invention of Tradition. 1983.) Adeed Dawisha. Nation and Nationalism: Historical Antecedents to Contemporary Debates #484 |
1983 | ||
| know-nothing | know-what | know-how | know-why | Czech-American economist Milan Zelenyi, professor of management systems, identified • data as know-nothing • information as know-what • knowledge as know-how • wisdom as know-why Wikipedia: DIKW pyramid Zeleny, Milan. "Management Support Systems: Towards Integrated Knowledge Management". Human Systems Management. 7 (1): 59–70. 1987. #58 |
1987 | |
| data | information | knowledge & understanding | wisdom | American organizational theorist Russell Ackoff, in his address to the International Society for General Systems Research, distinguished • data - symbols resulting from sensory observation, representing properties of objects, events and their environments • information - descriptions extracted and distilled from data by analysis, yielding answers to questions such as who, what, where, when and how many • knowledge - know-how, how a system works, acquired by learning from others or from experience, making possible control of a system to make it work efficiently, thus exercising intelligence, by transforming information into instructions, increasing the probability of the desired outcome or decreasing the resources likely required • understanding - knowing why errors are made and how to correct them • wisdom - the ability to foster effectiveness, development and potential, rather than efficiency, growth and attainment. Development cannot be given or imposed for it is a process increasing desire and ability to satisfy one's own needs, as well as those of others Russell Ackoff. From Data to Wisdom. Presidential Address to ISGSR, June 1988. Journal of Applied Systems Analysis, Volume 16, 1989. #59 |
1988 | |
| primordial | constructive | instrumental | Study of the ethnic conflicts arising at the end of the Cold War led to three theories about their causes. • Primordialism. Ethnic conflicts are the natural result of cultural differences that are real and identities that are fixed. • Constructivism. Ethnic conflicts are made possible by political systems and cultural scripts based on social interactions that can change and identities that are subjective. • Instrumentalism. Ethnic conflicts are caused by instigators who fabricate myths and manipulate identity to mobilize their ethnic group for the sake of their own personal economic and political interests and those of their group. Laura Yeghiazaryan. Which of the three main ethnic conflict theories best explains the ethnic violence in the post-soviet states of Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Moldova? Adeed Dawisha. Nation and Nationalism: Historical Antecedents to Contemporary Debates #483 |
2002 | ||
| eidetic variation | époche | phenomeno-logical reduction | intersubjective corroboration | Philosophers Shaun Gallagher and Dan Zahavi describe four steps of the phenomenological method. • époche: Suspend all theoretical and common sense assumptions about reality so as to attend anew to what is directly given in experience. • phenomenological reduction: Analyze the correlations between what is given in experience and specific structures of subjectivity shaping and enabling this givenness. This "leads back" (Latin: re-ducere) to the world. • eidetic variation: Imaginatively strip away the properties of things to determine their essense (eidos), their characteristics which make them what they are. • intersubjective corroboration: Share results with the larger research community, sort out what idiosyncratic to an individual researcher and what is structurally essential for experience. Wikipedia: Phenomenology (philosophy) Shaun Gallagher, Dan Zahavi. The Phenomenological Mind. 2nd edition. #586 |
2007 | |
| phenomenal quality | semantic abstraction | physiological complexity | functional usefulness | Jonkisz, Wierzchoń and Binder describe consciousness as varying along four dimensions: • phenomenal quality - the experiential, non-relational aspect of individuated, subjective consciousness - ‘what it is like’ to see something, feel pain, move, talk, think • semantic abstraction - aboutness - referential, transitive, intentional content, conveying meaning, the relational aspect • physiological complexity - structural, physical, embedded processes, bodily mechanisms, vehicles of consciousness in an organism • functional usefulness - pragmatically, for survival, ‘what conscious information affords’ a creature’s actions Jakub Jonkisz, Michał Wierzchoń, Marek Binder. Four-Dimensional Graded Consciousness. #569 |
2017 | |
| neuropsychology | metaphysics | epistemology | Author Iain McGilchrist introduces his book "The Matter With Things": This book is what would conventionally be called a single argument. That is why I have chosen not to publish it as three separate books: one on neuropsychology - how our brains shape reality; one on epistemology - how we can come to know anything at all; and one on metaphysics - the nature of what we find in the cosmos. Iain McGilchrist.The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World. #625 |
2021 |
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