The Four Sources of Knowledge

Knowledge can come only from four sources, which should be on your fingertips and recallable. i) Observations We observe reality through our five senses and collect raw data from our environment. Observation means directly receiving information about a phenomenon through our senses. We can observe a situation, an event, an object, another person's behaviour, or even another person's physical or emotional state without personally experiencing that situation ourselves. For example, I can observe that someone is crying, observe that someone is injured, or observe that it is raining. These are observations because I am receiving information through my senses. I can observe another person's pain, but I cannot experience their pain merely by observing it. Observation therefore provides us with raw data about reality, but what we observe is limited by the capacities of our senses and by the particular circumstances under which we make the observation. ii) Experiences and Experiments Ex…