- Author
- Stephen Grimm
- Published
- 6 May 2021
- Kind
- Encyclopedia entry in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Original
- plato.stanford.edu/entries/understanding/
- Subject
- Mind, attention and practice
What it is
Stephen Grimm wrote the entry for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It focuses on understanding the natural world and other people. It touches only briefly on understanding concepts, languages or texts.
What it says
- Grimm reports a case for translating the Greek episteme as understanding, not knowledge.
- Henk de Regt separates the feeling of understanding from genuine understanding. The feeling is neither necessary nor sufficient.
- Philosophers disagree whether understanding's objects are relations among beliefs or real relations in the world.
- Kvanvig holds understanding tolerates external luck. Pritchard holds it tolerates environmental luck but not Gettier luck.
- Philosophers dispute whether testimony can transmit understanding. Burnyeat says it cannot be transmitted as knowledge is.
- Some hold that idealized models give understanding even though they misrepresent their targets.
- The humanistic tradition says understanding people can require taking their perspective. Critics object.
What evidence it gives
The entry is a literature survey. It cites named philosophers and works through short thought examples. It runs no experiments, though it mentions some psychology studies by others.
Interests and limits
The entry is a survey, so it reflects the author's choice of what to cover. It centers on analytic epistemology and philosophy of science, with a shorter humanistic section. The bibliography after the main text was not read in full.