Hostetler & Kerns
Ways of Knowing

Study Questions
for

Huston Smith's Forgotten Truth

 

1. Explain the diagram on p 4. How are the two main columns alike and how are they different?
2. Explain the meaning of the diagram on the top of p 9.
3. Smith lists four kinds of realities that lie outside the pale of science. What are these four, and what does he mean by each of them?
4. What is "Scientism," according to Smith? How is it different than "Science?"
5. In chapter five Smith argues that there are some underlying similar themes expressed in both the basic teachings of science and the basic teachings of what he terms "the primordial tradition." Explain briefly what he means by each of these following themes:
   

   A. Things are not as they seem.

   B. The other-than-the-seeming is a More; indeed a stupendous more.

   C. In their further reaches the world's "mores" cannot be known in ordinary ways.

   D. The "mores" do, however, admit of being known in ways that are exceptional.

   E. The distinctive ways of knowing which the exceptional regions of reality require must be cultivated.

   F. Profound knowing requires instruments.