In the modern
world, since the Age of Enlightenment and the philosophical elevation of the
human person, the human intellect, and autonomy, the focus of epistemology for
the human race has been primarily episteme-driven. That is, in order for
someone to know anything they need to observe, to study, and to predict that
knowledge. The Scientific Method focuses on this form of knowledge. Episteme
is fully derived from what we can call the Material Truth of the world around
us. All that we can see and feel and smell and hear and taste…this is material
Truth. It is the world around us and we are made, at least in part, to “know”
the world in this way. And it is good! This sort of knowledge helps us to
survive and to thrive as a race. It helps us to predict how the world changes
with the seasons or how to adapt to response to various situations. On a
personal level, this kind of knowledge helps us to see the differences and
specialness of ourselves and other people and how to develop relationships
between ourselves and other people so we can all survive and thrive. Episteme
is good! Material Truth is good! My sharper students can see the big picture of
the class and what this discussion of episteme
and phronesis has to do with
Sacramentality. “So Mr. Smith,” they say. Episteme is the material Truth
that we can understand, and phronesis is the transcendent Truth that episteme
points to?” Yes! Episteme helps us in the Pit to see things better and
even to make some logical conclusions, and phronesis is the knowledge
that, using episteme, I conclude must exist.
Before the rope
landed at my feet and the flashlight soon followed, I used episteme to
explore what I could and to discover certain things about myself and my
situation. And after the flashlight got to me and I turned it on, I was able to
use my senses better. I could see more and discover more about who and where I
was.
The difficulty
with episteme is it is limited entirely by the capacity of what humans
can observe, study, and predict. If all knowledge was episteme, then
there would be no such thing as transcendent Truth. And if there is no such
thing as transcendent Truth and all that is True can be known by human
observation, study, and prediction, then the smartest humans are the ones who
have access to the greatest Truths. I am not afraid to make the claim that if
we accept episteme as the only valid knowledge or Truth, then we are in
danger of oppressing those who do not have access to that kind of Truth. This
sort of epistemology actually separates people from each other as it is fully
based on the intellectual capability of the individual human person. Truth
becomes like a commodity that can be owned or possessed by some and desired by
others.
Christianity
suffers from similar ideology if Christianity is treated more like a science
than a relationship. Many Christians look at Christianity as something that if
they study enough they will master it, like a science, and they will have some
knowledge of God or the transcendent that others just don’t have. They lord
that knowledge or Truth over others and the result is elitism and isolation.
The same thing that episteme does.
However, Christianity as a relationship with God does not isolate people based
on their intellectual abilities like a Material Epistemology might do. Instead,
it looks at knowledge and Truth as something transcendent and if it is
transcendent, it cannot be observed, studied, or predicted by one person better
than another; all people are equally ignorant of Truth. Instead, if knowledge
or Truth is phronesis-driven, then anyone who is outside of time and
space can give that knowledge or Truth (ropes) to whomever they desire. In this
way, thinking of knowledge and Truth as being transcendent on its greatest
level is to view all of humanity as equal, not in a material sense, but in a
transcendent sense.
(He really does sleep like this)
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