#knowledge #language #perception ![[The Knowledge-Language-Perception Complex 2024-07-01 02.04.35.excalidraw.png]] %%[[The Knowledge-Language-Perception Complex 2024-07-01 02.04.35.excalidraw.md|🖋 Edit in Excalidraw]]%% I had to go for a while thinking about knowledge as a thing on its own, just to realize more than once that the discussion gets mixed “out of necessity” with other aspects. It is common for conversations to veer towards linguistic considerations. This tendency arises from the fact that language is the primary tool we use to convey and exchange knowledge. Through language, we articulate our thoughts, ideas, and experiences, enabling us to communicate and learn from one another. However, as conversations delve deeper into the nature of knowledge, it is inevitable to touch upon the limits of our perception. Our understanding of the world is fundamentally shaped by our sensory inputs and cognitive processes, which impose certain boundaries on what we can perceive and comprehend. Regardless of where we initially focus our attention—whether it is on knowledge, language, or perception—when engaged in a comprehensive discussion, these three concepts inevitably become intertwined. Despite attempts to keep the conversation about them decoupled, their interconnectedness soon becomes apparent. A shift in our approach to these three concepts is imperative. Knowledge, Language, and Perception are not isolated entities but aspects of a unified structure. A three-fold complex that reveals its true nature and significance only when its underlying elements interact. The development of this complex was not an immediate realization; rather, it unfolded gradually through a series of stages. As I made connections between Perception, Language, and Knowledge, their profound interplay started to emerge, revealing the insightful nature of this framework. My thread of reasoning went as follows. It is only through interaction that Language and Knowledge came to be things of their own. The distinction is merely superficial. Deep down these cannot be divorced nor separated as they will both cease to have meaning. (1) Knowledge as a thing is unattainable thus all we can hope for are good approximates and these are highly dependent on our formulations, leading us to, (2) the emphasis of the importance of the linguistic apparatus in providing a good representation for the knowledge in question. From the above it is clear that, one has to be careful about interpretation. Not all of what we consider knowledge content is “knowledge”. The latter is always coupled to a language. Representation inadequacies and linguistic artifacts are always a part of the game. Moreover, the choice of representation plays a significant role in deciding usefulness. In fact, the solvability of problems and practicality aspects are highly language dependent. The quality of the language affects the value we see in the knowledge in question. On the other hand, knowledge isn’t just decided by its relationship with language, there is something extra; less abstract and more direct that has to do with the object of understanding itself. Here, I invoke perception as the missing piece to our complex puzzle. The final configuration emerges as the Knowledge-Language-Perception complex, which I have aptly named the *Epistemic Trinity*. This intricate structure comprises three irreducible complexes, each consisting of two interdependent components. The first substructure, the Perception-Knowledge complex, asserts that knowledge is necessarily about something; an intuited object. One cannot presume to know or even start to know something never perceived. Knowledge is then the product of a relation, mediated by perception and intuition. These processes are defining and significant, as all that is absorbed and distilled at that stage will to varying extents affect how one engineers the knowledge. Moving to the second substructure, the Knowledge-Language complex emphasizes that there is no knowledge without the ability to express it. Knowledge cannot be in any state but represented. When knowledge of a certain kind is evoked, a language comes with it naturally. Language becomes a crucial means through which we access and communicate understanding. The final substructure, the Language-Perception complex, illuminates the inseparable relationship between language and perception. As they are moments of the same cycle bringing impression and expression together. Just as we forge impressions from perceived objects. We proceed to crystallize expressions in language. The purpose of language is to provide faithful descriptions of perceived objects. Thus it is impossible to conceive of a language without an underlying perspective on things and vice versa. One can sum up everything by saying, To know an object is to reverse its perceived expression then engineer a language—an approximate of the one behind its making—that would provide accurate descriptions about it. Even though, knowledge, language and perception are distinguished by having their own words. Inquiries about them and especially about knowledge start to be insightful only when they are considered in relation. Either as doublets or a unifying triplet. To speak of any of them independently is nothing but an invitation to misconception. To some extent one can view them as aspects of the same entity—unnamed and known to differentiate at the linguistic scale. To back this claim I invite you to contemplate the following. At the core, knowledge, language, and perception revolve around three fundamental interests: descriptions, expression, and phenomena. Each of these interests contains a dichotomy. A description is the product of ontology and logic. Ontology provides the framework for categorizing entities and their relationships, while logic governs the reasoning and structure that underlie the description itself. Together, ontology and logic contribute to the construction of meaningful and coherent descriptions, capturing the essence of the subject at hand. Expression, on the other hand, relies on the synergy between vocabulary and grammar. Vocabulary encompasses the repertoire of words and terms available within a language, representing the building blocks of expression. Grammar, in turn, provides the rules and structures that govern how these linguistic elements are combined and arranged to convey meaning. The harmonious interplay between vocabulary and grammar enables us to articulate our thoughts, ideas, and emotions, giving rise to diverse forms of expression. Phenomena expose two contributions to their happening find their foundation in the interplay of kinematics and dynamics. The former deals with the study of motion, positions, and trajectories, while the latter explores the forces and interactions that shape and govern these movements. Together, kinematics and dynamics offer insights into the observable world, unraveling the intricacies of phenomena and enabling us to make sense of the rich tapestry of our perceptual experiences. The two-fold dichotomies above are all the same. Ontology, vocabulary and kinematics are similar ideas as they account for possibilities and freedoms of things. While logic, grammar and dynamics encode the rules and constraints of their evolution. The underlying ingredients map perfectly as if they are instances of the same category in different contexts. Expanding the conceptual mapping, we can embrace reasoning, calculus, and mechanics as a natural thirds to the existing dichotomies. By uniting the notions of freedom and constraints within equations that can be manipulated, we empower ourselves to not only establish relations and articulate our understanding but also to reshape and reframe its elements, leading to deeper insights. Through reasoning, we can merge descriptions to generate new layers of descriptions, expanding our knowledge and enriching our perspectives. To bring this shift to a conclusive standpoint, I put the claim made in [[Knowledge is The Art of Drawing Distinctions]] in harmony with this new framework of understanding by breaking down knowledge engineering into a three-stage process. The initial stage is *perceptual contrast*. Here, the foundations of knowledge are laid through the recognition and differentiation of distinct perceptual experiences. It is through perceiving and contrasting various phenomena that we start to identify patterns, similarities, and differences, laying the foundation for subsequent stages. The second stage involves *linguistic distinction*. Language plays a crucial role as it provides the necessary tools and structures to articulate and express the discerned contrasts. Through clever engineering of vocabulary, grammar into a coherent linguistic framework, we are able to create a system of distinctions that enable us to communicate and convey our understanding effectively. Finally, the culmination of this three-fold process lies in the formulation of *knowledge description*. Drawing upon the perceptual contrasts and linguistic distinctions, we synthesize and construct comprehensive descriptions that capture the essence of the observed phenomenon. These descriptions serve as repositories of our insights and interpretations, allowing us to share, refine, and expand upon our understanding of the world.