Nous is the balanced form of the four types of knowledge according to the Aristoteles in the sixth book of Nichomachean Ethics. Nous itself is the human “intuition” or the human’s perception to uncover the truth and acquire knowledge. Nous is divided into four: Techne (Art), Episteme (Theoretical Knowledge), Sophia (Philosophical Wisdom), and Phronesis (Practical Wisdom).
Techne circulates knowledge that has to do with creativity and craftwork. This knowledge is mobilized in studio hours where a student will create a design and present the results of their creative thinking to their lecturers. Episteme covers the theoretical knowledge that humans usually acquire in school and university for most of their lives. Sophia covers the philosophical mind and a person’s love and passion for something. It also covers moral and philosophical knowledge in society. And lastly, Phronesis covers practical wisdom that is used every day for economic, social, and political issues. For example, a person’s way of handling problems, challenges and crises on the way would fall into the categories where Phronesis would be mobilized.
Personally, I don’t think I am perfectly balanced in all four and neither is any human my age. But I would say that I tend to go more to the aspects in the Sophia and Techne quadrant. It isn’t to say I will never get better in the rest of the quadrants, but I haven’t really found the “sweet point” for both Episteme and Phronesis due to the lack of experience in both fields regarding architecture.
To start it off, Episteme would be the quadrant that everyone would be familiar with. Being in the first semester and away from the place I call home, I have not fully adapted to “university life”. Studying in high school and in university is vastly different in terms of how to study and how to build motivation to study. The gaps could be created because in high school, we are so used to learning everything through tutors and teachers. Lecturers are there to introduce the material to you, but other than that you need to use your own knowledge to conclude the given materials by yourself. This may be what hinders me in the Episteme quadrant. Not to say that I don’t have confidence, but I do think I need a little more time to get used to studying and learning in terms of theoretical knowledge by myself.
COVID-19 during most of the school years also played a big pivotal role and made my study habits very off and it feels like I don’t understand how to study anymore. However, I am trying to get better and develop healthy study habits by starting to optimize my time management.
I haven’t had much trouble in understanding certain subjects regarding theory. But I would have to say the materials to base from learning is very limited. I am not referring to the knowledge that I can find is limited, but rather the references needed from the lecturers. Although learning about everything about a certain topic is quite tempting, the uncertainty of it being on a test is quite nerve-wracking. Plus, with all the assignments that us students have already received, not a lot of time is on our hands to study only one topic. And to top it all off, we also need our downtime since having all of that thrown in our face for the first two months of university, it gets overwhelming for us. We’re not robots and we will need extra space to breathe and process all of it at once. A very strong opinion, but I do feel the need to say that occasionally.
Another reason that I may be a bit limited, is that I process materials better in English and can better articulate myself in English—as I am doing right now. It has been a particular habit of mine back in high school to study materials delivered in Indonesian with notes that I translate in English and base my notes off the materials found in English. In BINUS, the materials in the PowerPoint will be in English though oftentimes, there are lecturers who present an updated PowerPoint, and the materials will be in Indonesian and don’t share the slides to us students. This creates a gap between the materials delivered and the materials that we study and won’t deliver the optimal understanding that we will need to understand the overall theory.
Secondly, Phronesis may be the quadrant that new architectural students would have the least experience on. There is very little exposure on complex problems that an architect would face in their designs. For example, problems in the electrical system, plumbing system, and structural system. The assignments are still centralized in design problems and lean more to the Techne quadrant rather than Phronesis. Still, things like time management, group assignments, and financial management fall into the Phronesis quadrant category. With that in mind, I feel like I am adjusting well enough in these first two months of university albeit a few bumps here and there.
Phronesis itself has a lot of subcategories that imply judgement onto oneself, onto political and social engagement, and onto economics and I am sure that I am no master of Phronesis in these three subcategories. I have never lived truly alone before, in a place that I am not familiar with and am expected to encounter a lot of problems along the way. This causes me to be “forced” into the Phronesis mindset of tactical thinking in various ways.
Techne would be a quadrant that I am not entirely sure of since I have so much to learn. Designs are very relative, and the input varies on which opinion the design would be based on. But I am confident on the fact that I will improve. I have always loved creating, whether it be using colored paper, painting, or making a house out of cardboard boxes and it is one of the things I really look forward to in architecture. The Techne quadrant itself is one of the motivations to keep doing architecture and is where the foundation of my Sophia quadrant lies.
For the Sophia quadrant itself, I chose architecture because of my interest and love for architecture. Architecture is not an easy prospect, I admit. But I am willing enough to learn and struggle within the field even though I know very well that architecture is not easy to learn or do. I am not a thorough person in general, but I believe that through architecture I may learn to be not only a thorough person but a person who is understanding, communicative, creative, sharp, and observative in nature.
Architecture is also the field that I believe I would love working in the most. It doesn’t only focus on design, but it also focuses on the impact it can bring into the environment and the impact it can bring to the people who interact with the building. It focuses on a lot of fields at once and requires a lot of research and learning that I love to do! It also requires a lot of practical work and calculating that makes it a bit scary to approach a first. But in time, I believe that I can be able to do it. A lot of care and work is put into a single building. That’s why I have no doubt that despite the chaotic working conditions, I can strive and be happy and proud on what I do as an aspiring architect in the future.
To be completely honest, even though I claim to be inclined to the Sophia quadrant, I struggle with motivation and even self-doubt when it comes to architecture. As I said, architecture isn’t easy, and all the assignments given felt a bit hard for me at first. I doubted about my decision and even now feel a bit burnt out. Maybe due to homesickness, maybe due to feeling out of place, maybe due to the fact I haven’t adjusted myself to the chaotic lifestyle an architecture student would have. Nonetheless, I believe I can get through it because I’m passionate enough to start learning about architecture. I believe I will be able to get through this rough start and start loving it more with the highs, the lows, and the satisfaction of project completion in the future.
In conclusion, I still have a long way to go. There are lots of things that I need to fix and learn for my Nous to be in a balanced and optimum state for me to carry on making the best decisions for my life and for myself in architecture. I feel like it would be a stretch for me to desire to be able to balance all four aspects when I still have a long journey to go. So I will decide to take small steps one by one and improve myself in all aspects slowly, taking all the time I need to be better in the future.
My Mayonnaise Jar 