Knowledge is what one knows, but how does one know things? What words describe how we know things? There are four broad types of knowledge into which we can sort how we know things. We know things by faith, philosophy, experiment and experience.
Some things we know by faith. The Vikings believed that, those who die bravely in battle will go to Valhalla. In this way we trust someone else to tell us what is true. Certain people claim that something must be true, because it says so in the Bible, which is always true.1 This is religious faith. Some people took hydroxychloroquine, because their president told them to. A teacher may tell us that Britain did most of the fighting against Germany in World War Two, so we assume that it must be true.2 That is a faith in authority, teachers and textbooks. It seems silly to trust another to tell us what is true or not. However we frequently have to depend on other people with greater knowledge than ourselves from auto mechanics, to cartographers3, to medical doctors just to get along in this world.
We can also know things by philosophy. The height of philosophy is mathematical analysis. Philosophy includes computer simulations, logical reasoning and qualitative judgement. Qualitative judgement tells one if a thing is good or bad, but not how much there is. Computer simulations in biology are called an in silico experiment (Latin for: in silicon). Such knowledge depends on good and complete information being put into the simulation or logical argument.
For example, it makes perfectly logical sense to argue that the world is flat, if one ignores any evidence that contradicts such a conclusion. For example round shadows cast on the moon during every lunar eclipse, proved the shape of the world to ancient astronomers.
In the modern era much knowledge is discovered by experimentation and observation. First people will develop a philosophical idea, or hypothesis, of what they expect, then design an experiment to test it. The results of an experiment are called empirical evidence or scientific knowledge. These results are quantitative measurements as opposed to the qualitative judgement in philosophy. In biological research such laboratory experiments are described as in vitro (Latin for: in glass4) since they are done is some sort of test tube.5 An example of such empirical evidence are the cell culture experiments that showed that hydroxychloroquine cures COVID-19 in cell culture experiments with human tissue.6 That was great news and it was re-tested and confirmed by others. This knowledge was very meticulously and correctly scientific.
That brings us to our last category of knowledge, hands on experience, sometimes called the school of hard knocks. In biology it is called in vivo (Latin for: in life) and in medicine it is called clinical results. In the 14th century, Italian cities isolated visitors for forty days to allow bad air to leave them since they might carry the bubonic plaque. This is where we get the word quarantine from the Italian quaranta. The science was wrong, but experience taught them that it did stop the disease.
Doctors and nurses reported that hydroxychloroquine had little or no effect on people sick with COVID-19, no matter what the scientists said.7 It was perfectly correctly scientific to say that hydroxychloroquine stopped COVID-19, but not clinical. It did work, but only in a dish, not in actual people.
When you make a decision it is wise to understand how you know the things on which you base that decision. Those 14th century, Italian cities were protected from the bubonic plague by experience and luck. That didn't stop Dr. Alexandre Yersin, from doing the scientific experiments in Hong Kong (1894) that discovered the actual cause of bubonic plague leading to better prevention. Understanding how one knows things allows for better decision making.
Footnote:
1. Please note that this claim to perfection is one that the Bible does not make for itself.
2. Of course it wasn't, Russia did most of the fighting.
3. map makers
4. Which today may be an advanced material instead of glass.
5. Also referring to experiments by growing plants in glasshouses or keeping animals in tanks.
6. Remdesivir and chloroquine effectively inhibit the recently emerged novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) in vitro, Cell Research (2020) 0:1-3; doi.org/10.1038/s41422-020-0282-0
7. Further experimentation showed that hydroxychloroquine does not protect lung epithelial cells from COVID-19. However it worked in the other cell types that had been tried. It was good science, but bad medicine.
Chloroquine does not inhibit infection of human lung cells with SARS-CoV-2, Nature 585, 588-590 (2020). doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2575-3
by John Larrysson [email protected]
A native English speaker who has been teaching practical English in Hong Kong for over two decades.
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NOTE: Starting in 2016, this column has been published once every two weeks, on every other Tuesday.
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