A Few More

Ways of Knowing

And then, a Summary

Intuition

• Messages from the Heart

• Gut Feelings

 The Power of Intuition

How to Develop Intuition

The ability to acquire immediate knowledge, independent of analytical reasoning.

Emotional Intelligence (EI) or (EQ)

Emotional Intelligence (EI or EQ)• Self-awareness – the ability to read one's emotions and recognize their

impact while using gut feelings to guide decisions.

• Self-management – involves controlling one's emotions and impulses and adapting to changing circumstances.

• Social awareness – the ability to sense, understand, and react to others' emotions while comprehending social networks.

• Relationship management – the ability to inspire, influence, and develop others while managing conflict.

• Intuition• Emotional

Intelligence• Messages from

the Heart• Gut Feelings

Other forms of “Knowledge”

“I know it’s true because……..”

Very often, things that we “know” or “believe” to be true are actually beliefs that we have borrowed from others, even though we would be hard-pressed to explain or justify the belief.

Let’s look at two examples.

Other Forms of “Knowledge”

ExpertKnowledge

Common Knowledge

Expert Knowledge

Knowledge or beliefs that we adopt from someone else based on her or his credentials, experience, or position, even though we do not fully understand the supporting evidence.

• Economic issues• Environmental issues• Legal issues• Political issues• Business issues• History issues• Etc.

Common Knowledge

Knowledge or beliefs that we hold because most others in our social group hold them, even though we would find it difficult to support or justify the beliefs.

Everyone knows that….• politicians are dishonest.• professors are liberal.• business people are conservative.

• going to college is good for students.

• democracy is the best form of government.

• _____________________

So, let’s briefly summarize

Ontology

What exists?What are the categories of

reality?

Epistemology

How do humans acquire

knowledge?

Ontological Theories

Epistemology Theories• Rationalism justifies claims by offering clear, analytical, and persuasive 

reasoning, or deductive and inductive logic.

• Empiricism justifies claims by citing sensory experience, life experience, or scientific evidence.

• Religious Faith justifies claims by citing revelation, special teachers, important texts, or insights from personal prayer or meditation.

• Mysticism justifies claims by citing realizations derived from deep or transcendental meditation.

• Occultism justifies claims by citing lessons or insights gained from some type of supernatural or paranormal force or agency.

Epistemology Theories (continued)

• Intuition (immediate knowledge) justifies claims by pointing to deep feelings or emotions or to gut feelings.

• Expert Knowledge justifies claims by simply citing and accepting the opinion of some credible expert as sufficient in itself.

• Common Knowledge justifies claims by noting that most people in some social reference group believe it to be true.

Your Epistemology??

• Do you have a primary tendency?

• Are you multi-modal?

• Are there some that do not work for you?

Expertism

Let’s Practice

Epistemology on Display

Epistemology on Display: A Fictional ExampleThe Chancellor’s Office was encouraging all campuses to “disenroll” students who do not demonstrate solid basic skills in math and English writing by the end of their first year. So, CSUMB formed a faculty and student committee to consider this issue: Should CSUMB disenroll the students, or should we allow them to stay and continue to help them? Which course of action would best serve students? The following is how different members of the committee processed the issue.

1. If we disenroll the students and encourage them to go to the community colleges to develop their basic skills, they will get much better assistance. Then, in a year or so, the students can return to CSUMB with a much better chance for success and graduation. The community colleges have more resources and better services in this area. CSUMB is a university that just is not equipped or financed to provide basic skills development.

2. The Vision Statement says that CSUMB is particularly committed to helping educationally underserved students from across California. By definition, these students we are talking about are educationally underserved. So, our stated Vision requires us to allow these students to stay and to continue to serve them. Kicking them out because they are educationally unprepared would contradict what we say we stand for.

 

3. I have reviewed all the existing research on this topic, covering 17 universities around the country that have faced this same issue. Ten (10) universities chose to disenroll the students, and 7 allowed the students to stay and continue working on their basic skills. Where the students were disenrolled, 38% of them eventually returned and graduated from the university. Where students were allowed to remain in the university, 26% of those students went on to graduate. So, it’s fairly clear that disenrolling students would be the best policy for CSUMB to follow.

4. I can’t really put it in words or fully explain it, but I just have this deep feeling that

telling some of our students that they will have to leave would be really wrong. Particularly the ones who feel like they are part of our community and whom we know are working hard to improve their skills. Like I said, this is a gut feeling, but its message to me seems so clear.

5. Look, most of us have experience at only one or two campuses. The Chancellor, on

the other hand, has been responsible for many, many campuses over two decades in a number of different states. So, if the Chancellor thinks that disenrolling students would be the best policy, then I think we should rely on his extensive knowledge and experience. He was selected to lead the largest university in the nation for a reason.

 

6. In my seven years here at the university, I have worked with many students who need further work in their basic skills. The very students that we are talking about today. And, I can tell you that they think that their skill levels in reading, writing, and math are just fine. So, they resist every suggestion that they engage in further development work. Therefore, I strongly believe that sending these students back to the community colleges is the only way that they will get the message that they are not ready for university-level academic work.

7. At my tribal council meeting the other evening, I asked our tribal elders to consider our dilemma. After deliberating on the issue, they reminded me that the occupants of this land have a tradition over thousands of years of nurturing and protecting members of the community. They advised that kicking out some members because they need help would seriously violate the spiritual traditions of this space. Of course, they did note that more recent occupants of this land had different ways that might well approve of disenrollment.

8. As I often do, I meditated on the teachings of the Dalai Lama to help me have the wisdom to see the right course of action on this issue. His words and his life help me to understand the central role of compassion in guiding our behaviors and our decisions. So, while I do not yet fully understand the most compassionate way to respond to our particular issue, I hope that our committee will keep this sense of compassion in the foreground of our deliberations.

9. I frequently consult with my psychic when I have these difficult issues to deal with, and I had a session with her last night. She suggested that the Ouija Board or talking board could be helpful, so I posed our question to the board. The Ouija Board responded by spelling out something that was a lot like “Tough Love”. I take this message to mean the we should disenroll the students because it would be the best way to show them that we care.

10. Frankly, I’m having trouble making sense of what any of you is saying. I think it’s all just

different ways of guessing. How in the world can we know how an individual student will react to a disenrollment letter or to being allowed to stay? Anger, relief, challenge, depression, fear, inspiration…these are just some of a million possible reactions. Every single student will decide how she or he is going to make sense of whatever we decide, so let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that we know what will be best for the students. If that’s really our goal, we ought to just let each student decide for themselves if they want to go or stay.

Deliverable: Epistemology Paper