Learning Disinterested Knowledge is Eating Pecan Pie.

[coberst]

Learning Disinterested Knowledge is Eating Pecan Pie.

I have discovered that I tend to respond to the understanding of a new idea much as I respond to eating pecan pie. The ‘eureka’ moment resulting from the understanding of a new idea, which I had been pursuing, is similar to the feeling I have when eating a delicious piece of pecan pie.

Every bite of that pecan pie is extremely pleasurable; but after a few bites, while I desire to taste many more bites, my body informs me to stop and eat no more for a while.

When I enjoy the eureka moment of discover while studying I find that I feel the same kind of inclination. I want to study the matter further but my body seems to inform me that I must put the book down, walk around for a while, and let my mind digest what I have learned.

Just as I must let my body digest the rich pie I must also allow the mind to digest the rich new idea. I think that unconsciously my mind is reordering many of my previously constructed concepts to be in accordance with the new idea. The new idea is as rich to my mind as is the pecan pie is rich to my body.

My experience leads me to conclude that there is a world of difference in picking up a fragment of knowledge here and there versus seeking knowledge for an answer to a question of significance. There is a world of difference between taking a stroll in the woods on occasion versus climbing a mountain because you wish to understand what climbing a mountain is about or perhaps you want to understand what it means to accomplish a feat of significance only because you want it and not because there is ‘money in it’.

I think that every adult needs to experience the act of intellectual understanding; an act that Carl Sagan describes as “Understanding is a kind of ecstasy.”

This quotation of Carl Rogers might illuminate my meaning:

I want to talk about learning. But not the lifeless, sterile, futile, quickly forgotten stuff that is crammed in to the mind of the poor helpless individual tied into his seat by ironclad bonds of conformity! I am talking about LEARNING - the insatiable curiosity that drives the adolescent boy to absorb everything he can see or hear or read about gasoline engines in order to improve the efficiency and speed of his 'cruiser'. I am talking about the student who says, "I am discovering, drawing in from the outside, and making that which is drawn in a real part of me." I am talking about any learning in which the experience of the learner progresses along this line: "No, no, that's not what I want"; "Wait! This is closer to what I am interested in, what I need"; "Ah, here it is! Now I'm grasping and comprehending what I need and what I want to know!"

When we undertake such a journey of discovery we need reliable sources of information. We need information that we can build a strong foundation for understanding. Where do we find such reliable information? We find it in the library or through Google on the Internet or combinations thereof.

I have a ‘Friends of the Library’ card from a college near me. This card allows me, for a yearly fee of $25, to borrow any book in that gigantic library. Experts in every domain of knowledge have written books just especially for laypersons like you and I.

Lincoln was an autodidact. Perhaps self-actualizing self-learning is for you. When your school daze is complete it is a good time to begin the learning process.

[Turtle]

How many threads does it take on this subject to see that no one is interested? Some folk have nut allergies, which is to say that just because you think you have the answer for everyone else, does not make it so. Your harping on this is like teaching a pig to sing; not only does it not work, it irritates the pig.

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[CraigD]

Gestalt theorists (I’m married to one) call the “eureka” moment “gestalt formation”. I think most other people, psychologists, scientists, or layfolk, tend toward the common term “the ‘ah ha’ moment”. Among mathematicians and other formalists, I’ve noted it’s typically informally known as “the ‘now I’m going to remember this for a long time’ moment.” You, Coberst, are the first person I’ve heard compare it to pecan pie. You must really like pecan pie!

Whatever you call it, it’s a recognized significant phenomena in many disciplines, from cybernetics to philosophy to psychophysiology, and an important aspect of human and human-like animal psyches.

I believe that self actualization, in the sense used by Maslow, Hoffer, and similar folk, is well described as an “ah ha” moment involving the knowledge domains of society and history. An attribute commonly ascribed to self-actualized people that strikes me as very revealing is “has a sense of ones own life in the context of history” or similar wording. Maslow's hierarchy of needs and similar theories describe life a progressive series of increasingly great “ah ha” moments, from acquiring the fundamental perceptual schemas that qualify one as an adult human, to the profound ones these theories associated with self-actualization. Even if you don’t accept these theories – as increasingly, mainstream science and humanities does not – the objective existence and significance of “ah ha” moments is fairly indisputable.

Originally Posted by coberst

When your school daze is complete it is a good time to begin the learning process.

As best I can tell, a great if not the greatest problem with school is that most of us get most of it when we’re young, don’t much want it, and little appreciate it, and too little of it when we’re old, want it, and can appreciate it.

Oh, lucky are those with academic tenure!

[coberst]

Craig


I like that idea that this moment is called a “gestalt formation” because I think of it as a moment when understanding happens. Understanding is, I would say, the creation of meaning. I have often thought about my inclination to stop reading and do something else after this moment happens. I have decided that the brain needs time to sort it all out and to e-mail the new inference pattern to all the locations that need it. It seems to me that every time we learn a fact or create a meaning that many brain locations must integrate that logic into the accumulation already there. I suspect it is like defragmentation of the brain.

[coberst]

Originally Posted by Turtle

How many threads does it take on this subject to see that no one is interested? Some folk have nut allergies, which is to say that just because you think you have the answer for everyone else, does not make it so. Your harping on this is like teaching a pig to sing; not only does it not work, it irritates the pig.

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Humans seem to have a turtle like behavior. When encountering a new idea it withdraws into its shell. However, if the object is seen often enough the turtle finds that it is not a threat and can then learn to use the new object to advantage.

[Turtle]

Originally Posted by coberst

Humans seem to have a turtle like behavior. When encountering a new idea it withdraws into its shell. However, if the object is seen often enough the turtle finds that it is not a threat and can then learn to use the new object to advantage.

Ahhh Coberst, you loveable ol' desert lizzard. And they say only maddogs & Englishmen go out in the midday Sun. As you surmise, I am well accounted in knowing both human & turtle behavior. What you seem to have missed in my repost however, is the nut allergy reference and I will tell you that for those so afflicted, multiple exposures are only new chances to choke to death from anaphylaxis.

As to your disinterested learning, my metaphor applies in reverse, that is to say that most people are allergic by some one or other circumstance of nature & nurture to following your admonitions "to experience the act of intellectual understanding." So for the minority not so disposed, it is all well and good and they are the singers and the others the pigs. Let's be satisfied that everyone can enjoy a symphony without being compelled to play in it.