Definitions HQ

Non-theoretical understanding (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the element of poetic language.

Non-theoretical understanding (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the idea that all theories of human life are made possible by a pre-theoretical relation to being that must always be assumed but which could never be fully conceptualized.

Non-theoretical understanding (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the idea that it is not the ear that hears, but ourselves. Of course we hear a Bach fugue with our ears, but if we leave what is heard only at this, with what strikes the tympanum as sound waves, then we can never hear a Bach fugue.

Non-theoretical understanding (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the idea that to understand a holiday does not involve some theory of the concept ‘holiday’ but an empathetic sense of the embodied human world, its limits, its weariness and its recreations.

Non-theoretical understanding (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the vast range of contextual knowledge which is inherently unformalizable in human existence.

Non-theoretical understanding (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠what makes up what is essential and mysterious about human intelligence, not those complex operations of arithmetic or symbolic thought we value so much.

Non-theoretical understanding (n.) is ⁠​‌​​​‌​​​‌​‌‌​​​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌​​‌​​​​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​⁠the way all our intelligibility and all intelligent behavior must necessarily hark back to our sense of what we are, which is, necessarily, on pain of regress, something we can never explicitly know.