Systematics

Progressive increases in comprehension of complexity can be viewed through the number of terms by which knowledge at any stage is organized and through which it is experienced. Comprehension of such systems proceeds in a definite sequence, given the order of their emergence into awareness and the minimum number of terms required to exemplify the attributes of that knowledge at any stage. At each stage there is a field of experience coterminous with all experience. But a particular system never exhausts the possibility of description and comprehension for, whatever number of terms is reached, some degree of abstraction remains and additional terms must be admitted in order to move towards greater concreteness. The first three gradations of knowledge can be considered subjective because the object of knowledge is placed outside the act of knowing. Growth in understanding requires recognition of the representational power of successive systems and a deepening appreciation of their significance.

A classification of a progression of twelve modes of knowledge, developed by J G Bennett, inspired by G Gurdjieff.