[Neurons] The Philosopher's Series # 11

[Charles DesJardins]

Charles DesJardins

 

The Philosopher's Series #11

 

August 29, 2008

 

 

EPISTEMOLOGY AND NEURO-SEMANTICS

 

There are different branches of philosophy. Some people are interested in
philosophy about the mind, others are interested about the philosophy of
values and ethics, and others may be interested in the philosophy of
politics and some even of aesthetics. There is also a branch of philosophy
about knowledge. How can we know anything? What is knowledge? How can I be
sure? Can I use pure reason or pure intuition? Is the only reliable way to
know anything through empirical observation? The kind of philosophy that is
interested in how we can know things is the philosophy of epistemology. 

 

There are two main branches of thought in epistemology (there are many
different nuances, but we will keep it straightforward). There are those
people who believe that the only way to obtain knowledge is through
empirical observation, they are usually considered in the positivist camp.
Then there are those who believe that a person can come to understand
knowledge through the use of reason and intuition, they are known as in the
post-positivist camp. 

 

These two different methods of obtaining knowledge use different methods to
obtain that knowledge. The positivist will use quantitative analysis to
count and measure that which they can observe and the findings are just
that, they are the measurements and the counts of that which is observed.
Most Positivists would use a form of deductive reasoning to come to their
conclusions.

 

The post-positivist will generally use a qualitative investigation by means
of understanding the phenomena at large. The post-positivist believes that
nature is not static, but changing and truth is only true now, at this
moment, and that truth is constructed by those who measure it and that we
can never know exactly the truth because it is biased by the observer.

 

What type of epistemology does the central tenants of Neuro-Semantics hold?
Does it hold to either or both? It seems to hold to both a positivist and a
post-positivist epistemology. When a person has primary experiences of see,
touch, feel, smell, etc. those are primary experiences that then get
represented in the individual. When the Meta-Coach or the NLP practitioner
or the Neuro-Semantic practitioner asks the VAK questions, they are asking
for quantifiable responses. Even in the use of Mind-Lines and the
Meta-Model, quantifiable responses are sought; there is a looking for the
deletions, distortions, and generalizations. This line of questioning and
the theories behind these types of questions tend to support positivists
epistemology exactness.

 

Then the Meta-Coach, the Neuro-Semantic practitioner, and the NLP
practitioner, through the exploration of the client's meanings, goes meta
and uses a post-positivists exploration. It is at the level of meaning,
within the client's matrix that the practitioner shifts between
epistemological assumptions, dancing within the content and through the
intention laden with meaning and states.

 

So, when it comes to epistemology and how people can know anything, it seems
that Neuro-Semantics treats knowledge as both knowable from a positivist and
a post-positivist perspective. In your pursuit of your best and highest, do
you recognize that there are different ways for you to know and to
understand and that through the use of the Meta-Model, Mind-Lines, the
Matrix, and Meta-States that you can dance through the different ways of
knowing and that through a synthesis you develop an understanding of your
best and highest intentions and thus facilitating your self-actualization
and empowering yourself onward toward your personal genius?

 

It is through a synthesis of a positivist and a post-positivist philosophy
(not in the strictest sense of hard core positivism or post-positivism, but
in the spirit of those philosophies) that we and our clients reach their
highest and their best. It does not need to be a dichotomy of either-or but
a synthesis of quantifiable information, the finding of the deletions,
distortions, and generalizations and the qualitative meanings, intentions,
and states.

 

It is important to highlight that not only do Neuro-Semantics and NLP have
an epistemology, they are epistemologies. Neuro-Semantics and NLP are models
of how we know or come to know about our world, and this is what makes them
epistemologies. This is what makes them meta models about various facets of
knowledge. The epistemology of NLP is a representational epistemology; it is
how we represent, in our minds, the world. The epistemology of
Neuro-Semantics is a self-reflexive epistemology; it is how we know about
our self-reflexive knowing of the world.

 

Contained within the process of knowing through the Neuro-Semantics and NLP
models are the epistemologies of positivist and post-positivist views. The
epistemologies of Neuro-Semantics and NLP, by using the various
epistemological assumptions of positivism and post-positivism, make them
meta epistemologies. They are epistemologies meta to epistemologies.
Contained within the models of knowing how we represent the world to
ourselves, and in the use of self-reflexive thinking in our understanding of
our world, we use the other epistemologies as ladders of structure to
facilitate this process. 

 

So the next time you edit and re-direct the movies in the mind and the next
time you follow the matrix of your mind and update your meanings and
intentions to achieve your personal genius, you become epistemologist par
none!!

 

 

Charles.desjardins at sbcglobal.net

 

 

 

 

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