THE LADDER OF UNDERSTANDING

 MAKING BETTER SENSE OF WHAT WE EXPERIENCE

 

1. Homer (8th century BC), the poet who "has taught Greece" (Plato), shaped ancient Greek culture in terms of mythology.

 

2. Protagoras  (c. 490 BC – c. 420 BC) and the other sophists substitute the logos for the myth.

 

3. Socrates (c. 470–399 BC), through his methods of refutation and maieutics, leads from logos to aporia.

 

4. Aristotle (384–322 BC) begins the Metaphysics by surveying aporiai and develops from here his theoretical knowledge of the fundamental nature of reality.

 

5. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) in his Critique of Pure Reason establishes the limits as to just how far reason may legitimately proceed.

6. Silvio Ceccato (1914-1997) developed operational methodology ("Metodologia Operativa") as a way that leads to operational mindfulness: the awareness of HOW WE KNOW.

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How we act depends on how we understand what we experience (ourselves, society, the world, the universe, etc.). Mostly this understanding seems obvious to us, we do not feel the need to inquire into it. But then we cannot improve it! Fortunately wise men did that for us.

The "Ladder of Understanding" is a model of the steps that in the course of the centuries some wise men made for us in order to improve the human ability TO MAKE SENSE OF WHAT WE EXPERIENCE.

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