[SteveA]

I must admit I can't quite figure out how the categories work but I'll just pull out the versions of some of them that I prefer:

I. Metaphysics-“What is ultimately real?” A. Ontology- the study of existence or being. B. Cosmology- what is ultimately real in the universe? C. Teleology- what is the purpose of our existence D. Questions to be considered

I don't see a specific purpose to reality but I think there's value looking for them. Reality is a journey that we learn from. So the process and direction of it seem most important to me.

1. Reality vs. Appearance 2. Existence vs. Symbols 3. Product vs. Process 4. Purpose vs. Purposelessness—Purposeful change—Will of God—Sovereignty of God 5. What is not 6. What cannot be 7. What might be

I don't like #2 much, symbols tend to over simplify or misrepresent things.

#7 "What might be" - this one is the fun one. It sort of leaves opens new non-obvious possibilities. So there's more to explore with this perspective.

II. Epistemology—“What is true?”—“How do we know truth?” A. Questions to be considered 1. The nature of cognitive processes 2. The sources of human knowledge 3. Methods of validating ideas

I enjoy statistics and algorithms. I see learning as making sense of chaos, we try to find things that correlate or have patterns and we continually tie these pieces of information, along with their relationship together in our minds. The rest we toss out, though it's just as real, we don't understand it.

The two things we don't "see" are things that are complex or chaotic enough that our minds never make sense of them and also things that are so common and recurring that we become sensitized to them and don't notice them.

But anyway, I think we learn by taking large amounts of unintelligible information and slowly sifting through it to find the non-random, and predictable. Once something is sufficiently predictable and instinctively understood we move on to other things that catch our attention, constantly searching along the coastline of chaos.

4. What do we teach, out of all that is known a. What is most authentic or accurate? b. What is most important? c. Who decides what shall be learned?

I think we teach to benefit, but I'm torn between whether or not biasing what one teaches is good or bad. I used to think biasing information taught to someone can be useful but I've been thinking more that there's the greatest benefit from unbiased information.

I think a person themself should be the main director in what they learn.

[quote]5. How can or will students best learn the truths we decide they should know?
B. The way in which we learn something affects how much trust we place in its value, true or false?
C. Five ways of knowing, which one do you choose mostly?
1. Scientific Method—senses, empiricism
2. Deductive reasoning—rational logic
3. Experience—feeling, intuition
4. Common sense—“everybody knows it”
5. Revelation/authority: Divine authority and human authority experts—three kinds of revelation:
a. Written
b. Personal
c. General[/quote[

I think people differ in how they learn to place trust in things. There isn't a single way to teach everyone that creates the most trust in the value of the information. People calculate validity or accuracy of information in different ways, that depend on their prior experiences.

For me it's mostly C #1, - sense, and empiricism. though to a degree #4 common sense but I trust most things I've learned first hand.

The way I see things is that there are some relationships learned from various physical phenomenon - like attraction/gravity/acceleration/pressure/force/stiffness/fluidity/friction etc.

I tend to place things I see or read about into an internal model of "how the world works", using these "tools". I prefer it when I can observe things and verify the operation matches my internal model but oftentimes I just leave some model in place and wait to see if it pans out and update it if necessary.

Things that don't fit well, I just toss aside and leave for another day - maybe I'll learn some new tools that will make sense of it in the future.

III. Axiology—“What is of value? A. Ethics—the question of conduct B. Aesthetics—the question of enjoyment and taste IV. Anthropology—the study of man A. The origin of man B. The continuation of man C. The nature of man D. The purpose of man E. The reconciliation (if any) of man F. The will of man G. The behavior of man

The big ones here for me are probably Aesthetics "the question of enjoyment and taste" and "The continuation of man". The most important things for humanity as a whole is to continue existing and try to enjoy the ride. :) At least that's probably the closest way to describe my view.

Interesting post too, thanks.