Today, on the Arkadian Anvil, I hammer out some thoughts on epistemology and the problem of belief.
Different kinds of knowing, each having their own veracity and value, are to be cultivated and used appropriately. However, there is one kind of knowing we should avoid as much as possible: belief.
Read More: http://witchesandpagans.com/Pagan-Studies-Blogs/kinds-of-knowledge.html
One Comment
February 16, 2014 at 4:26 pm
Good pastoral letter here, Care’. Always up for a little epistemology with breakfast!
Bob Wilson ( Robert Anton) taught a little mind game technique (which I think he snagged from Gurdijief), of wholeheartedly embracing a completely different world view for a week, say, Sunni Salafism, then adopting some diametrically opposed view for the next- perhaps Evangelical Christianity, with the goal of knocking around your established ways of seeing the world. Useful to clarify how we filter our perception to fit our models, to discredit mere belief, perhaps. These processes can help make you more free, but perhaps at the price of leaving one morally adrift: Magick without compassion is death, no?
But you seem to be calling on pagans to attend to growing a higher level of Discernment. This is certainly work for Pagan clergy and geeks of the Great work, like many of your readers and I can certainly see a workshop for pagan youngsters in here somewhere, but I wonder if most Pagan folks just want better stories to organize how they think about our lives, and I wonder if that’s not enough.