Sphoța Theory of Knowing and Its Implications for Higher Education

Abstract

The article’s central theme is that knowing cannot be equated with knowledge because knowing is an innate process and knowledge is a product. Knowing as an intuitive process is an inalienable experience, whereas knowledge is an alienable property. Knowledge is a discursive construct of human political economy, whereas knowing is the very character of existence. Knowing arises as we interact. It involves awareness, understanding and the experience of intelligence. Knowledge, on the other hand, is a commercial product of the class-ridden world. The argument has its implication for higher education, that is, higher education should primarily focus on nourishing the knowing quotient without being lost in knowledge production. The article traverses various realms of knowing, such as knowing subjects, learning beings, ontologies and epistemologies of knowledge and knowing, as they glimmered from the ancient to the modern both in the east and the west. Towards the end of the article, the arguments culminate with the philosophical narratives of an Indian philosopher Bhartṛhari, especially his sphoța theory, known as sphoța sidhantham.