Via Humanist: what are the origins of the Data-Information-Knowledge-Wisdom hierarchy we seem to take for granted these days? Well, it appears to be T. S. Eliot, who wrote these lines in a poem called “The Rock” in 1934:
Where is the Life we have lost in living?Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
I actually knew of the reference already, but it’s interesting to see it confirmed as the first use of these terms in relationship to one another. More here.
Posted by mgk at February 2, 2005 07:33 AMNotice the capitalization of the "L" in "Life" and the lack of capitalization for "wisdom" and "knowledge"?
Very interesting how the diectic "we" sometimes works in a textual fragment transported into a different context. I don't know if the three lines quoted on their own induce the reader to identify with the "we" or to resist identification. Perhaps, in the pagent play, The Rock, where the lines are to be found in the opening chorus, the dynamic of identification/resistance is different. We know not.
Posted by: Francois Lachance at February 2, 2005 10:44 AM | Link to Comment
Good points, Francois. I noticed the capitalization of Life too.