That kind of relational approach to knowledge is fairly natural to us as children, but must be developed in order to reach its full potential, because it is not something that can be taught, as a lesson, nor memorized, nor tested, but must be caught, or grow naturally as the mind matures. When it becomes more deliberate, it might be called “dialectical inquiry,” in the manner of Socratic questions, but that is a later, more mature form of synthetic thinking. It begins with a relationship— “the science of making relations” with all kinds of knowledge—learning to care, learning to love.
