Nothing at all to do with keris.

drdavid · 31st March 2010, 08:05 AM

Sombunall....is a word created by the rather off beat iconoclast writer Robert Anton Wilson, first mentioned in his book 'The New Inquisition'
He describes it as a word we badly need for describing many situations, things and ideas.........it stops us from getting stuck in the black/white, night/day, on/off etc dichotomy of thinking
It means 'some but not all'
In essence our perceptions involve abstractions (we only perceive part of a thing at any one time), we then generalise from groups of abstractions and come up with rules or facts and assume we KNOW something
In actuality we never know all, at best we know sombunall

David · 31st March 2010, 01:26 PM

Awesome Dr D. Another R.A. Wilson fan. I've read quite a bit of his work and saw him lecture a few times.

A. G. Maisey · 1st April 2010, 05:10 AM

Yes, true:- we all have only a part of knowledge in any field, and maybe what we regard as knowledge is not really knowledge at all.

I had never heard of R.A. Winston.

So I googleised him.

After reading a little bit about him I realised just how very fitting the quote on the bumper sticker might be.

31st March 2010, 08:05 AM	#1
drdavid Member Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: Australia Posts: 372	Sombunall....is a word created by the rather off beat iconoclast writer Robert Anton Wilson, first mentioned in his book 'The New Inquisition' He describes it as a word we badly need for describing many situations, things and ideas.........it stops us from getting stuck in the black/white, night/day, on/off etc dichotomy of thinking It means 'some but not all' In essence our perceptions involve abstractions (we only perceive part of a thing at any one time), we then generalise from groups of abstractions and come up with rules or facts and assume we KNOW something In actuality we never know all, at best we know sombunall Last edited by drdavid; 31st March 2010 at 11:23 AM.

31st March 2010, 01:26 PM	#2
David Keris forum moderator Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: Nova Scotia Posts: 7,237	Awesome Dr D. Another R.A. Wilson fan. I've read quite a bit of his work and saw him lecture a few times.

1st April 2010, 05:10 AM	#3
A. G. Maisey Member Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 7,056	Yes, true:- we all have only a part of knowledge in any field, and maybe what we regard as knowledge is not really knowledge at all. I had never heard of R.A. Winston. So I googleised him. After reading a little bit about him I realised just how very fitting the quote on the bumper sticker might be.