On Learning

How do we know how to act? Where does society come from? What is the basis for civilization?

Before we can begin this essay we must take one axiom as a given: Man acts with purpose to bring about change which he deems necessary. We will discuss the implications of this axiom as they become necessary. All knowledge must be understood as derived by human action.

All functions of society, thru the division of labor and knowledge, only come about thru learning. Learning is a human action. Learning is the process of understanding the external world and how it functions in relation to acting man. Learning must be understood in its most general sense. It is not merely gaining an education thru an institution such as a school or university. Learning is a ceaseless process. Every signal we receive from the outside world contributes to our individual learning and hence to our understanding of how to act. Learning is a requirement of all action; learning without action is nothing more than theory.

Learning requires the processes of perception, observation, abstraction and application. Taken as a whole these functions are called learning. Each level from perception to application forms its own rational basis in the process of learning.

Process of Learning

Learning Process(es)	Rational Basis
Perception	Perception
Perception, observation	Sensation
Perception, observation, abstraction	Generalization
Perception, observation, abstraction, application	Discovery

Perception alone is nothing more than that -- perception. Perception paired with observation is called sensation. Observation includes the subcategories of sensory action called: sight, taste, touch, smell, and hearing. We must recognize each new level in the process of learning requires the former process to function properly. Without perception observation is impossible. Perception is the process of receiving a signal. Observation is the process of "recording" the signal in the brain. It is possible to perceive a signal without observing it. We are unaware of many received signals. These signals can and do form in the unconscious mind; however, this topic is outside of the scope of this essay.

Abstraction is the next level of learning which must be paired with perception and observation. Abstraction is the ability to analyze, synthesize, or generalize immediate observations to the world around us. All of these rational processes taken together form a rational basis called generalization. The ability to apply these abstractions to specific action is called rationalization. Learning involves committing learning to memory to know how to behave in the future under the exact same circumstances or perhaps under circumstances analogous but not identical to the aforementioned situation. The later situation relies heavily on abstraction.

Discovery is a requirement of all action. Discovery, synonymous with learning, is the highest order of rationalization. Discovery is a necessity of action. How does one act correctly without first discovering how to act? To act and be in control of one's actions implies the notion of every process leading up to discovery. This does not mean, however, that one always acts with precise understanding of how to properly bring about a desired change or effect. It is entirely possible that at any particular level of rationalization something goes awry and leads to improper action. For example, we can imagine such a case where our perception might not be exact because of intoxication or perhaps because of an optical illusion.

Improper theory always implies a breakdown in the process of learning. However, when our actions do not result in a desired outcome this does not necessarily imply improper theory but may be attributed to improper technology or technique -- which required proper knowledge of theory to arrive at in the first place. As individuals our innate abilities differ which necessarily implies that one person may excel at one particular task where another fails. Thus it is not just proper theory that we require to act but also proper technique and technology -- or, taken collectively, skill.

It is the qualities of the individual and our innate abilities that lead us to the division of labor and knowledge. We can imagine that if all individuals had the same skill set and the same ability with this skill set we would still be living as animals. Imagine if all men excelled at scavenging for food but was unable to learn to hunt and kill his own food. It is sharing and exchange of knowledge and labor that allowed certain men to bring themselves out of this state and ultimately drove the advancement of society.

It is merely our ability to learn and pass down our learning from one generation to the next that has allowed civilization to prosper and advance. Technology allows us to record learning for our progeny to better pass down and revise old theory into better and more correct theory. For example, the Aristotelean view of the universe was replaced by Copernicus, which was replaced by Kepler, then Galileo, Newton, and finally Einstein and the modern quantum physicists. Understood this way, all learning is revisionist.

Emotion Verses Rationality

Emotion and rationality are related in that emotion always affects how one rationalizes reality. We receive signals from the world as it exists outside our own body. These signals are received in the form of the senses -- sight, touch, taste, hearing, and smell.

Due to differences in our ability to sense stimuli and our conscious awareness of them they are skewed from the reality of how someone else may perceive the exact same signals in the exact same circumstance. It is our perception as well as a chemical reaction to such stimuli that causes emotions. Emotions are nothing more than a conscious value judgment of one's current state. They are the lens through which we perceive reality and hence can and do affect how we behave.

Just because one may or may not have the same reaction to emotion as someone else, however, does not mean he or she acts any more or less rationally. The concept of irrational action is nonsense. Everyone must rationalize in order to act. Rationalization is action of the mind which is taken as a series of lower order actions which results in physical action. This does not mean one who acts in any particular manner is acting correctly or that the actions taken results in the desired effect; it just means that one has made a rational choice to act.

If emotions do affect how we perceive reality then what could be the basis for such judgment of one's actions? Is there a measure for the end result of action?

We can never make assumptions about why people behave they way they do. We cannot assume people are rational or irrational but rather that they act with what they deem to be the best choice for removing some felt uneasiness. To act is to be rational because before one can act one must necessarily rationalize such actions; what one attempts to do by judging such actions is to place a value on individual actions.

This cannot logically be done outside of one's own personal values and hence it holds no relevance to reality outside of the individual doing the action. We cannot place a value judgments on how one acts whether we deem those actions to be clouded by emotion or not because in order to do this we have to understand how those emotions came to be in the first place.

If we can indeed assign value to individual human action then we must necessarily make an assumption that there is such a notion as normative human behavior -- organically speaking, we are too complex to be able to answer such questions definitively and indeed the idea is totally incompatible with subjective value.

If subjective value is not correct then there is no basis for the economic sciences as we know it and this certainly cannot be the case. We know that subjective value is correct because if everyone valued everything the same way under the same circumstances there would be no exchange and no one would participate in the division of labor or knowledge. In other words, society as we know it would not exist.