Four Types of Knowing and Memory | 4min snip from The Tim Ferriss Show

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#657: Professor John Vervaeke — How to Build a Life of Wisdom, Flow, and Contemplation

The Tim Ferriss Show

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Four Types of Knowing and Memory

Our culture is fixated on propositional knowing, which is knowing that something is true. However, there are other forms of knowing, such as procedural knowing, which is knowing how to do something. There is also perspectival knowing, which is knowing what it's like to be in a certain situation, and participatory knowing, which is knowing through our interaction with reality. Each form of knowing has its own associated memory. Propositional knowing is linked to semantic memory, procedural knowing to procedural memory, perspectival knowing to episodic memory, and participatory knowing to a sense of self. Understanding different forms of knowing can help us navigate and make sense of the world.

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John Vervaeke (@vervaeke_john) is a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto. He currently teaches courses on thinking and reasoning with an emphasis on cognitive development, intelligence, rationality, mindfulness, and the psychology of wisdom.

Vervaeke is the director of UToronto’s Consciousness and Wisdom Studies Laboratory and its Cognitive Science program, where he teaches Introduction to Cognitive Science and The Cognitive Science of Consciousness, emphasizing the 4E model, which contends that cognition and consciousness are embodied, embedded, enacted, and extended beyond the brain.

Vervaeke has taught courses on Buddhism and Cognitive Science in the Buddhism, Psychology, and Mental Health program for 15 years. He is the author and presenter of the YouTube series “Awakening from the Meaning Crisis” and his brand new series, ‘After Socrates.’

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[05:31] The four ways of knowing (4P).

[10:15] Affordances.

[13:04] Semantic memory.

[13:37] Flow.

[27:03] Did John find Tai Chi, or did Tai Chi find him?

[29:46] Leaving Christianity.

[34:42] Wisdom vs. knowledge.

[36:54] Self-deception.

[41:53] When is logic the illogical choice for solving a problem?

[46:05] The powers and perils of intuition.

[55:05] Spotting patterns that need breaking.

[59:18] Meditation vs. contemplation.