Overview: The Circle of Knowledge shows a landscape of subject based word geography, mapped to a circle, using 8 primary words as pillars. It organizes words and concepts using subject-context similarity and geometrical relation, rather than alphabetically. The circle employs itself as a universal system, and can represent other systems that can be mapped to it. A link to previous versions is provided.
Part 1: Cyclic Pillar Flow - The foundation of the circle is 8 pillar words, with subject matter that flows from each to the next, eventually completing a cycle. While anyplace along the outer ring may be used as an insertion point as to the explanation of this cycle, I often prefer to start with physics due to the scale of physical matter. The flow is typically described in a clockwise manner to match the growing scale.
Physics to Chemistry - Physics studies the qualities, quantities, and configurations, of the Universe, from its whole, to its smallest piece. The current generally accepted model states that many subatomic pieces create nucleons, that nucleons and other subatomics create atoms, and that atoms go on to build larger pieces. This continues all the way up in scale to planets, galaxies, super clusters, and eventually the Universe itself. While physics addresses certain aspects of all these scales, chemistry does not. Instead, chemistry developed examining certain aspects of the pieces of the Universe beginning with a minimum of atomic size objects. In short, micro physics leads to chemistry.
Chemistry to Biology - Chemistry studies the atomic scale and larger. Beginning with atoms, many atoms make a molecule, many molecules make a compound, many compounds make a cell, and many chemicals go on to make larger, more complex objects. There are scale limitations on biology just as there was for chemistry. As such, biology is concerned with cellular objects and larger. In short, chemistry leads to biology.
Biology to Psychology - Following the scale larger, biology bases itself in the cell. Many cells go on to make a tissue, many tissues make an organ, many organs make a system, many organ systems make an organism, and finally, organisms go on to have personalities. In short, biology leads to psychology.
Psychology to Sociology - Psychology looks at the brain, nervous system, ego, thoughts, and patterns of an organism. From there, it goes on to examine the behaviors of many organisms as a whole. In short, psychology leads to sociology.
Sociology to Arts & Crafts - The behavior of many organisms leads to the creation of objects of both form and function by those organisms. The skills and trades of these objects lead to the development of arts and crafts.
Arts & Crafts to Symbology - Some arts such as hieroglyphics, emoticons, music, and other art used for communication and expression, goes on to become icons, glyphs, and or other symbols. The arts and crafts lead to symbol systems.
Symbology to Language & Math - The subject based pillar cyclic flow is now almost complete. Sounds and glyphs go on to be letters & numbers, letters & numbers become words & functions, and they in turn, become sentences, paragraphs, algorithms, compositions, and eventually libraries. Simple symbols become languages and mathematics.
Language & Math to Physics - Finally, from language & math, paragraphs & algorithms go on to create models. Models, such as general relativity & quantum mechanics, are then used to map and study the qualities, quantities, and configurations, of the Universe, from its smallest piece to its whole. In short, language & math lead to the study of physics.
Part 2: Inside the Circle - The inside of the Circle is generated by first considering the average subject that would be found between 2 adjacent pillars. For example, halfway between Chemistry and Biology is Bio-Chemistry. It continues geometrically, taking averages of nearby subjects to fill in locations. Since the 8 pillars around the edge are considered the root topics, the subjects tend to get more complex and specific toward the center.
Part 3: Outside the Circle - The outside of the Circle labels generalizations about a specific region or segment, and shows how other existing concepts and models can map onto the design. For each of the 8 pillars, you have an associated element, base unit, a subject using a "-tion" suffix, a quality, and a stat. The element and quality serve an esoteric or alchemical purpose, the base unit a systematization purpose, the subject a categorical purpose, and the stats are related to a Game based on the Circle, which use it to create a universal character creation template. 4 pillars are associated with seasons, and the halfway points between the 8 roots are also given a base unit. There are 16 categories also provided that capture the general description of the main topic in those wedges. Lastly, you will notice some broad categorizations splitting the information left to right or top to bottom, which show overarching trends among the subjects.
