Integrative Essay

9-12-00

PSY 115A

In his book, The Origins of Knowledge and Imagination, Jacob Bronowski writes about human knowledge, the way it is acquired, how we communicate it, it’s relationship to scientific knowledge, and how human and scientific knowledge is limited. Bronowski’s book can be related to, and help give insight to college students moving out of their houses and starting their new life away at college. At Vanderbilt, we will see, witness, hear, and perceive many new things, scenes, and ideas. This is all a part of furthering our education and expanding our knowledge. The first half of the book is about how what we see and witness is translated and interpreted by our brains. It is about communicating with others, as we will have to do at college. We will also have to meet new friends and teachers as we are settling into our new surroundings. The second half of Bronowski’s book is devoted to analyzing the human language, a main contributor to knowledge, itself and proving it has inconsistencies. Thus eventually leading to Gödel’s Incompleteness Theorem that, "There is no absolute knowledge," or "nothing is certain, not even that." A theme that is prevalent throughout the whole book is uncertainty. From uncertainty in the beginning with being uncertain whether or not what you see is true and complete, to uncertainty in the consistency, completeness, and truth of the knowledge we possess towards the end of the book.

As incoming freshmen, we will have to come in contact with new things. Some of these things include joining a fraternity, writing a thesis paper, getting thrown into a room and made to live with a person we have never met before. We will have to learn to become somewhat independent. Bronowski writes, "you cannot see the world without the intervention of the physical senses" (6). Our sight and our physical senses are really the main source of our knowledge about the world around us. This applies to college life because moving into a new surrounding, we have to be aware of what goes on around us. By being attentive, one gains knowledge and can share and acquire more knowledge about what goes on around them through interaction with others. Maybe these interactions with classmates could form the foundations of strong as well as lasting friendships. Humans have, "the ability to utter cognitive sentences (which no other animal can do) and the ability therefore to exercise knowledge and imagination" (Bronowski, 9). The main point the first half of the book makes that really relates to a freshman’s college experience is that,

Simply put, sight plays a big role in contributing to our knowledge and stimulating our imagination. This is a critical point or concept when getting adjusted to a new and unknown college setting.

Through human language, we are able to share and communicate emotions with other people, both those that the speaker is feeling and those that the words convey. We can communicate instructions on how to do something or what we want done, and we can also get across information. We can also gain knowledge by listening and engaging in conversations with others. To accurately and efficiently converse we must put, "reconstitution beside internalization, from our also being able to see ourselves as if we were objects in the outside world. That is the very nature of language; it is impossible to have a symbolic system without it" (Bronowski, 38). With our symbolic system, it takes a long time, a period of many years to many decades, and is very difficult to come up with scientific theories about the world around us. Why is this? Bronowski writes, "none of our explanations can be true, that in some sense there is no ultimate truth accessible to us" (Bronowski, 69). If everything in the universe is somehow connected, then separate systems or theories in this case can be analyzed and found to be true. This is until you open up the view and try to compare that theory or system to others. So in essence, a system can be proved with itself, but when you try to prove it with another system, it contradicts in places, and things that were once correct are now irrelevant and uncertain. Although sight and language are an essential part of scientific and human knowledge, they are uncertain and to prove this, Bronowski goes on to talk about Gödel’s Theorem.

The search for understanding human knowledge and imagination is not new. Long before psychologists began to think about the brain and language, scientists recognized that though the human brain was unique and that it was also imperfect. People imagined things, cultivated illusions, and had things they believed to be facts. So they began to question everything and analyze it with logic or reason. They make an active effort to determine and understand concepts, interests, knowledge, and nature through extensive experiments. This is where Bronowski brings in Gödel’s proof. He begins with talking about Gödel,

He then elucidates his point by telling a story similar to this one: If I have a piece of paper that on the front has written on it, "The statement on the back of this paper is true." When you flip the paper over, it has "The statement on the front of this paper is false." This creates a big loop or a paradox. Bronowski uses these ideas from Gödel to show that there is no total knowledge that is complete and consistent. The knowledge we do have now could change shortly. Knowledge is uncertain and incomplete, and since knowledge is spread through the senses and language, they are also imperfect and flawed.

"It is basic to the concept of truth as practiced in science that it is an absolute command in every detail. There is no distinction between good means and good ends. You are only allowed to employ perfectly honest means" (Bronowski, 127). In the use of absolutely honest means, the outcome will be uncertain. It may seem correct and certain when it is first conceived, but in the long run, it will end up being revised and changed or maybe even discredited because it is uncertain. As an example of things today that we almost believe are true but are, in reality incorrect, take scene from a movie where a man is flying through the air. Little children might believe it and accept it as truth. But older humans, who had seen more and had more knowledge, would know that it is uncertain because it is not possible in our system. They would see it on the movie screen, but they would be uncertain because it contradicts the system that they were used to. The knowledge is imperfect. "There is no absolute knowledge. And those who claim it, whether they be scientists or dogmatists, open the door to tragedy. All information is imperfect. We have to treat it with humility. That is the human condition, and that is what quantum physics says" (Bronowski, Movie Knowledge or Certainty).

In closing, everything is uncertain and imperfect, we can only take the knowledge we have and accept it as what we can know, but realize that "we may be mistaken," there could be another rule or law that could come along and disprove what we know. "In the act of recognition, a judgment is built in - an area of tolerance or uncertainty... No events, not even atomic events, can be described with certainty, with zero tolerance" (Bronowski, Movie Knowledge or Certainty). Strive for knowledge as we are doing in college, and realize that you do not and cannot have absolute knowledge but you can strive to be knowledgeable.