Seven Ways of Knowing
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Seven Ways of Knowing is an examination of what we mean when we say we know something, and the extent and sureness of this knowledge. It starts with an analysis of our perception of material objects, the role of evolution, and the nature of space and time. A non-mathematical description of relativity and quantum theory is given in the opening chapters (with a more technical treatment in two appendices). Abstract knowledge, knowledge derived from reading and the media (second hand knowledge), and how we know other persons are the subjects of the next three chapters. These are followed by a chapter on how objectively we can distinguish good and evil and then an appraisal of whether there can be a rational belief in any religion. The book ends with a theory of perception, which offers the possibility of a coherent understanding of all the topics: it is compulsive and entirely original.
David Kottler spent two years in the Army and four years in the Jesuits: two as a novice (including a short time in a Carthusian monastery) and two as a philosopher at Heythrop. A few years later, he read civil engineering at what is now the City University and then spent most of his working life as a consulting engineer. In 1990, he was elected a Fellow of the Institution of Civil Engineers. He has spent the last nine years writing and, with his wife, making Christmas Nativity sets that are sold worldwide. He remains a practicing Roman Catholic.