Four Ways of Knowing
How can we come to know something?
The way I think about music evolved from the way I learned how to experience music. There are many difficulties, though, that emerge when we try to think about something as experiential as music. These difficulties emerge because the way classical music theory is traditionally presented relies too much on propositional knowing instead of other forms of knowing. Being without direct experience throws the aims of music theory into question. This short piece attempts to look at the nature of thought and lay out what I’ve learned from cognitive science about the ways of knowing, and in doing so, approach new ways of understanding and teaching music, and serve an example of how we may live more fully in the world.
Thought is best understood as a dialogue. What is the nature of this dialogue? There are at least two different kinds.
First is philosophia, the pursuit of the truth or wisdom. Like two hunters in pursuit of their game, two people engaged in philosophia pursue the logos, the principle that organizes all things.
The second is philonikia, which is the pursuit of victory. This kind seems to appeal much more to the desires of the ego, as opposed to reason and the pursuit of logos. As it turns out, the pursuit of truth is more in line with how we as embodied entities perceive and navigate the world.
Our thoughts deeply relate not only to what but how we perceive the world. Throughout our different states of consciousness, we are presented with something or another, whether a river or a reverie. We select which information is worth paying more attention to and filter out the rest (Peterson, 2015), taming somehow the barrage of raw information, and construct an oriented and accurate vision of the world. What’s more, we don't primarily perceive sensory information. What we see in the world are meanings. We categorize information based on these meanings. The world is full of things and objects that have meanings to us, and what we perceive is the relevance of those objects and how to interact with them for our survival (Peterson, 2021). Because we categorize information based on its relevance and importance, and we don't just perceive sensations but meanings, meaning has to do with the thing itself, as well as the care that we have for it (Vervaeke, 2022). Existential care and perception itself are both shaped by our character.
It turns out our perception is a dialogue between our character, the core of who we are, and the world itself, and both are changed during this process. Aristotle noticed that when we perceive something, an object or a sound let's say, our mind conforms to that object or sound. Professor of psychology John Vervaeke described it this way: by seeing the world, the world discloses itself to me and transforms me, then I engage with the world and transform it. There is a dialogue between myself and the world. But is the dialogue one of pursuing victory or truth? The conformation of mind and the world is a ‘bringing together,’ which is a form of agape, or unconditional love. We come to realize something by loving it, by experiencing the philos in our search for the truth in reality. Is our aim to impose and win, or is it to notice what's there no matter where it leads?
A concept that I've been interested in is about the predictability with which music affects our feelings. Cognitive psychology says: "You feel the way you do right now because of the thoughts you are thinking at this moment" (Burns, 1999). Is the experience of music a thought, or is it more that thought? Does music make us feel the way it does because of the way we think about it? Some things lose their meaning when we attempt to translate them into something as tiny as a word, and music is one of those things; dance is another. Musical elements influence us in ways that we can generally predict, though not necessarily with words. Think about the distinctions between major and minor, or adagio and allegro, and the effect they each have on our moods.
It is through the dialogue of thought that feel the world. Music models the world in such a unique way; it is patterns of being and how we relate to them. When we hear music, it changes what we perceive (Droit-Volet et al., 2013), therefore, in each of us, music touches the dialogue that generates the world.
The concept of listening as a dialogue should inform how we teach music because music itself requires a level of personal engagement. Music should be taught with this dialogue in mind and not as a set of propositions or procedures to memorize. Though the set is important, it’s a lot deeper than that. The way we perceive music concerns our character, so music education should be informed by an approach that also speaks more to fundamental ways of knowing. These include participatory and perspectival ways of knowing, which I’ll introduce each in turn after one major concern.
If the mind itself changes when we perceive the world, how can I know if what I am perceiving is true? Since thoughts are all dialogue, is reality a hallucination? I've seriously wondered this question for a long time and finally found a reasonably convincing idea that suggests it isn’t.
Reality is not all a dream, because most of what we predict is true.
In a way, artistry has a lot to do with the prediction-making capabilities of consciousness. Reliving our favorite pieces to rediscover them appears as a form of worship when seen over time. The chief aim of achieving artistic certainty in performance or composition is to believe in exactly what will happen and yet still have enough detachment to enjoy the surprise of the experience itself. This seems to be what we do when we rehearse. We pursue our highest aim actively in the hopes that we embody it, which is the ultimate form of worship and very much relates to love. The live experience itself is a necessary part of this dialogue because the experience never fully aligns with our expectations; there will always be room for 'mistakes' and divine interplay. There is a lot to discover in the space of élan.
What are the four ways of knowing?
Let’s take a look at what I learned from emerging cognitive science and then apply it to a musical example. Looking back, I realize the last two made me much better at analysis and learning in general.
Propositional - This form of knowing results in beliefs and truths. The philosophical tradition of the West has operated as if we can reduce total truth to this form of knowing (“I think, therefore I am”). For a music theory connection, this relates to knowing the vocabulary of scales, chords, identifying intervals, and labeling different parts of a musical form. You should know what music theory proposes, but that shouldn't be the end in itself.
Procedural - This form of knowing results in skills. It's a form of knowing something that empowers us. In terms of theory, it's about writing smooth connections of chords or knowing what to look for when you open a score. You have to practice the skills and become empowered to make creative decisions, but arguably the leap into musicality requires the other two as well.
Perspectival - This form of knowing is about how states of consciousness create situational awareness and a sense of presence. Here we're breaking away from 'textbook theory' and moving into a territory of listening with a certain quality and openness to find those music relations that don't propositionally exist. This is like knowing how different parts of a form relate with respect to its beginning and end.
Participatory - This is to know something in terms of your traits and character, and how you've been shaped in order to fit the world. It's about faith, connection, feelings of at-one-ment, and a sense of realness. It's possible to listen and not only be moved emotionally but spiritually; and this can be for something as small as an interval. You have to allow yourself to be moved by those relations to realize everything that could be realized. Practicing free and open listening—a Taoist non-action approach—helped open this up for me and made me enter flow in chamber music.
Finally, there's an interesting connection with participatory knowing and the Stoic’s understanding of the logos. Stoicism teaches the logos, the central organizing principle of the cosmos, permeates the intelligible part of our consciousness that filters some things and not others.
And that, the Stoics teach, is our character.
For a harmony example to put this in action, visit my recent newsletter post!
A big thanks to John Vervaeke and Jordan Peterson whose podcast episode taught me about the 4 ways of knowing, and got me really interested in cognition.
Bibliography
Aurelius, M. (2002). The Meditations. Random House.
Burns, D. (1999). Feeling Good. Collins.
Droit-Volet, S., Ramos, D., Bueno, J. L., & Bigand, E. (2013). Music, emotion, and time perception: the influence of subjective emotional valence and arousal?. Frontiers in psychology, 4, 417. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00417
Peterson, J. (2021, June 28). A Conversation so Intense It Might as Well Be Psychedelic | John Vervaeke (S4 E34) [Audio podcast episode]. In The JBP Podcast.
Peterson, J. (2021, June 10). Heidegger, Binswanger, Boss (Phenomenology) (S3 E38) [Audio podcast episode]. In The JBP Podcast.
Peterson, J. (2015, September 30). Music and the Patterns of Mind and World [Video]. YouTube.
Vervaeke, J. (2022, February 22). The Return of Meaning. iai news.