How Do You Know What You Know?
Details
What if everything you call “knowledge” is only one small slice of how you actually navigate the world?
You know how to tie your shoes — but could you write down the exact physics of what your fingers are doing?
You know what grief feels like — but could you fully explain it to someone who has never lost anything?
You know who you are — but where, exactly, does that knowledge live?
We often answer the question “How do you know?” with:
- “I read an article.”
- “I took a course.”
- “I watched a documentary.”
Perfectly legitimate answers. But what if we push the question further? Not where did you get the information — but how do you know, as a mechanism? What does it actually mean to know something?
At this session of Socrates Café, we’ll explore the nature of knowledge itself — and why Socrates argued that ethical action might simply be a matter of knowing the right thing. Contemporary philosopher John Vervaeke proposes that human knowing isn’t just one thing. Instead, it unfolds across four distinct but interconnected modes:
- Propositional Knowing (Knowing that). Facts and statements that can be true or false. “The Nile is a river in Egypt.” This is the traditional philosophical and scientific model of knowledge — justified true belief.
- Procedural Knowing (Knowing how). Skills embodied through practice. You know how to ride a bike — even if you can’t fully explain how you balance. This knowledge isn’t true or false. It’s enacted.
- Perspectival Knowing (Knowing what it’s like). The felt experience of being. You know the taste of chocolate. You know what anxiety feels like. This kind of knowing touches on qualia — and the limits of language.
- Participatory Knowing (Knowing as). Your sense of identity within a situation. Not just knowing how to drive — but knowing what it is to be a driver. This is the deep, often invisible framing through which you encounter the world. Together, these modes shape how we think, act, relate, and make meaning.
In this Socrates Café, we’ll ask:
- Can you genuinely know something you can't put into words?
- Is confidence evidence of knowledge or evidence of a personality trait.
- If someone knows better and still does it, what's missing, knowledge of something else?
- Is morality mostly knowledge or is it training and habit?
- If you do the right thing for the wrong reasons, does it still count as virtue?
- Can you be a good person with sloppy beliefs?
- Can you be a bad person with rigorous beliefs?
- Do you learn something real from experience that you can't get from reading an explanation?
- Do other people know you better than you know yourself?
Readings:
The 4 Ps of knowing:
- https://people-shift.com/articles/the-4-ps-of-knowing-per-john-vervaeke/
- [https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/202101/john-vervaeke-s-brilliant-4p3r-metatheory-cognition ](https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/202101/john-vervaeke-s-brilliant-4p3r-metatheory-cognition)
- https://www.by-love-alone.com/blog/4-kinds-of-knowing
- (From 28:12) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6NiLOi3icc
Mary’s Room - Perspectival Knowing
- [https://www.philosopher.eu/others-writings/frank-jackson-marys-room/ ](https://www.philosopher.eu/others-writings/frank-jackson-marys-room/)
Theory of Mind - Perspectival Knowing