There is a barrier to discernment when seeking wisdom and knowledge.

Many people have a desire to become wise, knowledegable, and informed.

They have a panoply of reasons for doing so including but not limited to: self-improvement, to ascend in one’s career, to secure and protect one’s family, church, or community, and to give the world a better future.

But in the search for obtaining more knowledge and wisdom, most of those same people have a barrier that prevents them from doing this.

This barrier causes them to dismiss entire ideas or belief systems due to their flawed origins or associations, rather than critically discerning and extracting valuable elements from them through a systematic process.

It’s easy to dismiss entire ideas or beliefs simply because we don’t like where they came from or who supports them. This mental bias, while emotionally satisfying, is intellectually lazy.

We all know some of the famous idioms surrounding this, each emphasizing discernment, critical thinking, separation of value from waste, or not rejecting something entirely due to a defect:

• “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
• “Separate the wheat from the chaff.”
• “Don’t let one bad apple spoil the bunch.”
• “Take it with a grain of salt.”

The entirety of a subject, concept, belief system, religion, or philosophy should not be thrown out just because of a few bad components. This is contrary to wisdom. One must be able to have good discernment for determining what parts to absorb, what parts to reject, and what parts to make uniquely their own.

This barrier to discernment is the rejecting of ideas because of its source-origin and association.

What are the reasons we’d dismiss the entirety of a subject, concept, belief system, religion, or philosophy just because of a few bad components? It’s all due to 2 logical fallacies humans employ:

• Genetic Fallacy. Rejecting an idea or belief solely based on its origin or source rather than its merit or validity
• Association Fallacy. Dismissing an entire system of thought because it is associated with certain people or views with negative impressions

Basically, humans have a tendency to reject an idea because of its source-origin (Genetic Fallacy) or association (Association Fallacy). But just because something comes from a flawed source doesn’t mean it’s without value.

Wisdom requires parsing, sorting and sifting, not blind rejection.

Epistemic Parsing is a systematic process for discerning what is useful and discarding what is useless.

What’s a simple systematic process for discerning what is useful and discarding what is useless? That is where Epistemic Parsing comes in.

Our Epistemic Parsing System is a systematic method for analyzing ideas, concepts, or beliefs, evaluating them for truth, evidence, and consistency, and then constructing a belief system based on that analysis.

Epistemic refers to knowledge, beliefs, and certainty. Parsing refers to analyzing something in detail and breaking it down into component parts to understand its structure or meaning. Parsing is also used in the fields of compuational linguistics and natural language processing (NLP).

Step 1 in Epistemic Parsing: Use the “Lee Sifter” as an analytical sifter for discernment.

Bruce Lee said in his writings, “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” (published in 1975): “Absorb what is useful, reject what is useless and add what is essentially your own.”

When evaluating a concept, ask:

• “Is there anything in here worth keeping?”
• “Does this belief, concept, or framework contain elements I can isolate, examine, and possibly retain even if other parts are flawed?”

When designing an Axiomatic System of Philosophies that can withstand the test of time, sometimes they’re found in places one wouldn’t consider to look. It is ok to venture into the study of subjects that are considered controversial by some but helpful to others in order to understand the parts that are considered helpful.

Think of it as the skill of saying:

• “This part is valuable, even if the rest is flawed.”
• “This belief may be rooted in a disreputable source or view, but its logic holds.”

Step 2 in Epistemic Parsing: To discern efficiently, adopt postulates and axioms based on their predictive power.

Postulate or axiom as prediction. What does that mean?

By holding a postulate or axiom, does it help predict the future or explain an outcome? If so, that’s usually the correct postulate or axiom to hold.

Hold the correct axioms or postulates, then you’ll be able to predict the future.

If a new piece of information is obtained, align it with a known postulate or axiom in order to discern if it’s good or bad information.

If the postulate or axiom is not predictive, discard it or revise it.

The philsopher, Karl Popper, talks about this in his philosophy of Falsifiability in his 1959 book “The Logic of Scientific Discovery.”

Falsifiablitiy means that a theory, hypothesis, or idea can be proven false if it can be logically contradicted by empirical evidence. Empirical means verified through observation or experience.

An example of Falsifiability is the belief or postulate that “all swans are white” can be proven false by observing a single black swan.

If a belief cannot be falsified and helps explain and predict outcomes, adopt that as a postulate or axom. Use the “Lee Sifter” to absorb it or make it uniquely your own.

If a belief can be falsified or doesn’t help explain outcomes, it’s useless. Use the “Lee Sifter” to reject or revise it.

Remix Institute’s Epistemic Parsing System overcomes the discernment barriers when seeking wisdom and knowledge.

The steps described above, the Lee Sifter and Postulate or Axiom As Prediction, form the basis of our Epistemic Parsing System to teach you how to discern wisdom and knowledge better and to become better at critical thinking.

Discernment isn’t innate. It’s learned.

The Epistemic Parsing System is best understood as a practical, meta-cognitive skill that that filters and sifts signal from noise both externally and even within your own beliefs and assumptions. it describes a practical and essential skillset that can be used in critical thinking and analytical reasoning.

It’s a real-world cognitive process that can be used by virtually anyone: philosophers, analysts, scientists, skeptics, businesspeople, working professionals, etc.

It systemizes the breaking of complex ideas and systems into its component parts in order to separate, categorize, and evaluate those parts independently for truth, wisdom, or utility.

It involves Disaggregation: Taking a whole and splitting it into meaningful elements and Discernment: Making an informed judgment call on what to keep, reject, or modify.

It secures a signal’s integrity, increases signal-to-noise ratios, extracts truths and wisdom, and stratifies falsehoods.

With the system and tools above, you’ll avoid lazy thinking and progress towards an Axiomatic System of Philosophies that are resilient, refined like gold, and immutable to withstand the test of time.

Remix Institute Membership

If you want to improve your discernment and critical thinking skills and apply the Epistemic Parsing System tools described above, then take the “Investigation Upskilling and Root Cause Analysis” course from Remix Institute.