Monday, October 3, 2011

The Seven Areas of Knowledge

One critical area that seems to be lacking in traditional education is teaching people how the various areas of knowledge fit together. So, here is an attempt to systematically categorize all the areas of knowledge. There are other ways to categorize this information (such as the Dewey Decimal System, for example), but this is the way to categorize knowledge that currently makes the most sense to me. By using these categories it makes the educational process more understandable.

The Seven Areas of Knowledge

1. Language
How to compute (logic) and communicate qualitative information.
* Listening - Decoding verbal words and phrases into their related "thought" * Speaking - Encoding a "thought" into their related verbal word or phrase
* Phonics & word recognition - decoding written letters into mental "words"
* Handwriting & Spelling - encoding mental words into written letters
* Reading - decoding written sentences and paragraphs into "thoughts"
* Grammar & Composition - encoding "thoughts" into written sentences and paragraphs.
* Research - Methods of actively searching for some information
* Presentation - Actively disseminating in some format (speech, book, tape, video, web site, etc..)
* Logic - Using valid rules to determine previously unknown, qualitative information from information that is already known.

2. Math
How to compute and communicate quantitative information
* Philosophy of math
* Arithmetic - counting
* Algebra - translating relatively uniform qualitative information into quantitative information
* Geometry - translating quantitative information into 2D or 3D space for visual (or auditory or any of the other five senses) communication and computation
* Calculus - translating relatively non-uniform qualitative information into quantitative information and using shortcuts to handle the information more easily
* Statistics - taking into account a range of uncertainty when exact information is unknown
* Computational Math - the methods used by calculating machines to efficiently solve a math problem

3. History
The study of qualitative information recorded about events in the past.
* Human recorded record (i.e., oral, written, pictorial, audio, videographic, etc..)
* Archaeological record
* Geological record
* Astronomical record

4. Observational Science
The study of quantitative information recorded about events in the past.
Observing and Measuring the following areas:
* Earth Sciences
* Physics
* Chemistry
* Geology/Oceanography/Meteorology
* Astronomy
* Life Sciences
* Plants
* Animals
* Humans
* Social Sciences
* Psychology
* Economics
* Geography
* Political Science

5. Philosophy/Theology
Determining qualitative patterns and trying to predict likely future occurrences
* Nature of the designer
* Origins
* How best to handle current issues
* Predicting likely future events
* Possible other creations/creatures (heaven, angels, etc..)
* What is valuable to do

6. Theoretical Science
Determining quantitative patterns and trying to predict likely future occurrences
Determining patterns and predicting events in the following areas:
* Earth Sciences
* Physics
* Chemistry
* Geology/Oceanography/Meteorology
* Astronomy
* Life Sciences
* Plants
* Animals
* Humans
* Social Sciences
* Psychology
* Economics
* Geography
* Political Science

7. Technology
Using qualitative and quantitative information to do something useful
The 14 sub-areas of technology:
* Food
* Clothing
* Shelter
* Transportation
* Communication
* Education
* Medicine
* Management, Law and Government
* Financial
* Computing
* Recreation, Art and Music
* Martial Arts, Security & Military
* Career
* Interpersonal Relations

Relations between the Seven Areas of Knowledge

Math and Language - Some people think math computes and language communicates, but as defined here math can be used to both compute and communicate quantitative information and language can be used to communicate and compute qualitative information. When we "compute" qualitative information it is called "Logic".

History and Observational Science - As defined here, "History" records qualitative information. Observational science observes quantitative information and as soon as it is recorded that information is part of the past. So both history and observational science are dealing with records of past events.

Philosophy/Theology and Theoretical Science - Philosophy/Theology theorize about qualitative information whereas theoretical science theorizes about quantitative information. One mistake is that people mix up theoretical science with technology. Because they know technology works they assume a particular theoretical interpretation of observational science must be correct, but that is not always the case.

Quantitative areas - Math, Observational Science and Theoretical Science are all mainly quantitative areas of knowledge

Qualitative areas - Language, History and Philosophy/Theology are all mainly qualitative areas of knowledge

Goal of all knowledge - The goal of all knowledge is to do something of value, which by definition is the broad definition of "technology". Technology in this definition is not just electronics and other equipment, but also includes methods of using qualitative knowledge to do something useful.

Music and art - They have been traditionally given higher status because they use mediums that have few boundaries, so people can be creative with few restrictions. But in my view people can be creative in any technology, with each technology putting varying levels of restriction on their creativity. Therefore, I don't think art or music should get a special status above other technologies
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