Ways of Knowing

What are some of the different ways of knowing? Why does tradition afford reason and René Descartes’ method such a privileged status? I consider the purchase that rationalistic conceptions of thinking and scientific methods of investigation have in education. I argue that they heavily influence educational research and teaching and learning and that we should question their relevancy before applying them to all our academic disciplines. Where paradigms cross, I argue that scholars should be open to receiving the legitimate findings of colleagues from other disciplines. What objections are there to the supremacy of science and the rationalistic conceptions of human thought? I outline some of the objections arising from the scholarly literature and argue that they need to be taken seriously. Finally, I ask whether there are any other accounts of rationality on offer? I argue that a critical education measures epistemological and ontological gains not simply through the sciences alone, but by incorporating all our forms of knowledge and ways of knowing including moral, hermeneutic, critical, Indigenous and the creative. I touch upon aesthetic ways of knowing.