Strategies for Acquiring Knowledge

Final Exam
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Question #3: How we Acquire Knowledge
Heraclitus is famous for a lot of things. However, he is best known for his doctrines, some of which many people believe are somewhat controversial. On knowledge, Heraclitus believed that a lot of people cannot radiate wisdom. Not most people have the ability to understand. This is because understanding comes rarely and it is only those people with the heart and dedication that are able to digest information and acquire knowledge.
People can acquire knowledge only if they listen to the messages he sends and they are capable of discerning it. One of the statements that Heraclitus was that “Learning many things never teach understanding. Else it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, as well as Xenophanes and Hecataeus.” In the statement, Heraclitus finds the people mentioned wanting because they spend a lot of their time to collect information but they never spend enough time in digesting what is the information contains. It is evident that Heraclitus believes that acquiring knowledge is only possible through digging into the details of what one collects.
Therefore, people can only acquire knowledge by processing the information that they receive. He further notes that “Having heard without comprehension, they are like the deaf; this saying bears witness to them. It is not that Heraclitus doubts the abilities of people to learn. He holds that all people have the ability to think soundly. Human beings cannot simply acquire knowledge through gathering a lot of information but through improving the comprehension of the messages they gather. However, comprehending does not come easy. People must discover the unity in the information they gather and grasp their complexity. Further, he holds that knowledge and sense perception go hand in hand. One must therefore be able to decipher the senses for them to be able to understand the world and their surroundings and this can help them to acquire knowledge.
Therefore, the important strategies for acquiring knowledge include searching our soul, making direct first hand inquiry, organizing and classifying, and not just collecting information but ensuring we understand the information we collect. Heraclitus holds that searching our soul is necessary for us to understand ourselves and develop that memory and sensation that is required to learn. Soul searching is also important in determining the kind of information that one is after so that whatever we learn must be in line with our interests. Heraclitus holds that one of the barriers to learning is too many people not learning the information that they should learn. Therefore, through soul searching, they can decipher information and know what they should learn so that they can direct their learning efforts effectively. Heraclitus argue that lacking the ability to soul search is what makes people to lack an understanding of what happens in life. We need this to have a good understanding of what is going on around us.
Heraclitus also holds that key to acquiring knowledge is making direct first hand inquiry. Heraclitus notes that “Many do not understand such things as they encounter, nor do they learn by their experience, but they think they do. Indeed, they do not process the information they receive: Having heard without comprehension they are like the deaf; this saying bears witness to them: present they are absent” Here, it is clear that Heraclitus affirms the importance of being there in person when it comes to collecting information that can aid acquiring of knowledge. When one makes direct first hand enquiry, they will have the time and the dedication to digest the information they obtain and this is important to their process of acquiring knowledge.
Heraclitus also holds that knowledge could be acquired through organizing and analyzing information. He often argued that good analysis is important and organization can help us have good principles that are crucial to acquiring knowledge. Our organization, he says, affects our understanding of the world and defines the kind of people we are. People do not need just need to gather more information but they need to be well organized to be able to make sense of the information they gather. Without proper analysis and organization, this would prove difficult and those people will not able to acquire knowledge as they should. Instead, what they would be doing is gathering a bunch of information that that cannot make any sense of. The information that Heraclitus shared seemed to have had a lot of impact even though he never seemed to have had a lot of students.
Finally, Heraclitus argues that to acquire knowledge, one needs to do more than just collecting information-they must understand the information they collect. In the end, Heraclitus holds that knowledge is not determined by the amount of information you gather but by how much you understand that information. In the end, he holds that people need to gather only as much as they can master. Gathering so much will leave people overwhelmed. Despite the doubts he has on the cognitive abilities of people, Heraclitus does acknowledge that every person has the ability to reason soundly and make me...