| Degree | Object | Form | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Doxa | Opinion | Phenomena | Concept |
| Dianoia | Rational Knowledge | Thought | Idea |
| Episteme | Intuitive Knowledge | Noumena | Ideal |
Tradition teaches that there are three degrees of knowledge:
-
Doxa
(opinion): our knowledge of the sensory or phenomenal world
-
Dianoia
(rational knowledge): knowledge based on thinking and logical deductions
-
Episteme
(intuition, gnosis, wisdom): direct knowledge of the essence of things
Gnosis remains largely ignored or misunderstood in our day. Voegelin, for example, designated Gnostics as those who believed in a received knowledge, that was really on the level of ideas, or dianoia. In popular parlance, intuition refers to an unexpected insight into the phenomenal world. However, in Tradition, gnosis is direct knowledge of the noumenal that is usually acquired through intense spiritual practices.
An example is the awareness and experience of oneself as a person, that is, as a center of consciousness and will. It sounds simple, but in actual practice there is much more to it. It takes efforts and exercises to become aware of one’s real I or true Will.
So much so, in fact, that the obvious is not noticed by those who claim to be the most intelligent and educated. For example, in an earlier post, we showed the example of someone who denies his will on the grounds that it defies the “laws of physics”. I could point to other examples on the Internet of intelligent people who deny the validity of their own consciousness and subjectivity, believing it to be no more than electrochemical processes in the brain. This puts dianoia as the highest form of knowledge.
It is episteme alone that provides certain and absolute knowledge. It intuits the ideal form, which is non-sensory and transcendent to the manifested world. At the level of dianoia, the ideal becomes idea, or the object of thought.
Thinking is limited to manipulation of ideas and can never reach certainty. The theories of science are always subject to future revision and deeper que stions have been debated ad infinitum, from the past and again into the future. Thinking is always about essences and can never penetrate the mystery of existence, the individual, the unique, the non-repeatable, the miraculous.
Doxa, or sensory awareness of the natural, or phenomenal, world is enthralled and deceived by the multiplicity of manifestations. Doxa recognizes concepts through a process of abstraction that extracts the common characteristics. Ideal, idea and concept correspond to the three degrees of knowledge.
Faith is related to gnosis. It does not refer to beliefs in sensory things or a body of ideas (the two lower levels of knowledge). True faith is belief in ideals, or noumenal reality. It involves the entire personality, especially the Will. Meditating on the truths of Faith can lead to authentic Gnosis.
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