Human knowing is examined as it emerges from classical empirical psychology, with its ramifications into language, computing, science, and scholarship. While the discussion takes empirical support from a wide range, claims for the significance of logic and rules are challenged throughout. Highlights of the discussion:
- knowing is a matter of habits or dispositions that guide the person's stream of consciousness;
- rules of language have no significance in language production and understanding, being descriptions of linguistic styles;
- statements that may be true or false enter into ordinary linguistic activity, not as elements of messages, but merely as summaries of situations, with a view to action;
- in computer programming the significance of logic, proof, and formalized description, is incidental and subject to the programmer's personality;
- analysis of computer modelling of the mental activity shows that in describing human knowing the computer is irrelevant;
- in accounting for the scholarly/scientific activity, logic and rules are impotent;
- a novel theory: scholarship and science have coherent descriptions as their core.
The discussion addresses questions that are basic to advanced applications of computers and to students of language and science.
