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2.3.0 Reframing the literature reviewIn section 2.1 the concept of epistemology was explored in order to establish a context wherebyit would be clear what exactly I meant when I used the term 'knowledge' both in relation to thegeneral principles of research as befitting a doctoral study and also within the specific context ofthis study. It was a wide-ranging review and was conducted, I now realize, in the manner of atheological study which begins by surveying the history of ideas, 'drops-in' on those that arerelevant to the topic and 'tees up' the specific points to be made by the author. In that discourseit is therefore relatively straightforward to assert the provenance of an idea, theory or hypothesis.The method is what enables the claim to be made that, '... we are standing on the shoulders ofgiants.' Metaphorically our new ideas are the product, at a given moment in time, of blendingnew experiences with 'ancient' wisdom. Having developed this insight I now intend to apply theapproach to the next section so that reflections on key texts around Information andCommunications Technology will also become part of the theoretical background to the latterparts of the study.In section 2.2, I attempted an historical and multilateral review of literature to draw strands ofthought together from across the disciplines of theology, psychology and philosophy bothWestern and Eastern traditions - this also befitting of a 21st Century piece of work which wouldinappropriately discount insights deriving from Eastern philosophical traditions despite the workbeing undertaken in a European context.This means that my understanding of the self, generically, and myself specifically derives frominsights garnered from a survey of global literature. This is appropriate since much of the workundertaken in and around this project is the outcome of thought processes from across the world,85Simon Hughes Ph.D. Thesis (October 2012)