The Difference Between Knowing and Believing
Do we believe the plant has captured the Volkswagen, or do we know it? Knowledge vs. Belief . . . that is the question |
Much is made of the concept of proof in the world of
science, math, and physics. Proof is
what separates knowledge from belief in those disciplines. What separates knowledge from belief in daily
life?
We are forever getting into trouble because we confuse
belief with proof, and we’re all too often wrong. If something can be proven, we can say we
know it. If something is merely
believed, it cannot truly be known. Yet we make decisions based on belief all
the time.
Oftentimes, we take two things that are believed, tie them
together, and assert a third thing to be known as a result. But it’s not.
Two beliefs add up to two beliefs.
They do not equal one proof.
Yet responsible people in our society act that way every
day. They confuse believing with knowing,
and make flawed decisions as a result.
Most often this happens because we do not understand what’s needed to
actually prove something. Here’s an
example:
You believe your acquaintance Robert lives in Miami;
- and -
You know Miami is a city in Florida.
Therefore, you feel confident saying, “Robert lives in
Florida.”
But you’re wrong. You
don’t know it. You merely believe it,
and belief is nothing more than conjecture. Why would that matter? Let’s say Robert died, or got divorced. You might make totally wrong assumptions
about what would happen to him or his estate based on your knowledge of Florida
law, which could turn out to be totally irrelevant.
Mistakes like this happen all the time, at the personal
level and even at higher levels. All
stem from the same cause – failing to recognize the difference between belief
and knowledge. This confusion causes us
all sorts of harm.
Proving something in the world of science – to truly know it
– involves the use of logic and mathematics.
Few of us do that, or even understand the process. Instead, we have our own definitions of “daily
life proof,” which we might use to prove that Miami is a city in Florida.
As it happens, the techniques of mathematical proof can apply
here as well, even if we don’t think of them.
We can look at a map, locate Florida, and see that it is within the
bounds of the state of Florida. The
mathematics of set theory allows us to construct a proof that Miami is within
the state of Florida. Of course, most
people just point to the map, and say, “Miami is obviously part of Florida.”
This is an example of something we know that has a simple,
easily understood proof.
What about the belief that Robert lives in Miami? That’s not so obvious, when you think about
it. There is no map with “Robert” on
it. Instead, we assess what we know
about him:
- He’s mailed us letters from Miami, and our address book says he lives there
- He meets us in Miami when we go there for conferences
- He talks about living under the warm Florida sun
We put all that together in our minds, and say, “Robert lives
in Miami.”
We assume that is knowledge, but it’s really just belief. If you combine something that is believed with
something that is known, the result remains a belief. Adding an additional conjecture does not – by
itself - make for proof.
It may increase the odds, but that’s a rather different
proposition than actually proving something.
For example, we could look at the evidence for Robert living in Miami
and say it suggests Robert lives in Florida, even if he is not a resident of
Miami. He might live just outside the
city limits, and still meet us, talk about being there, and so on. But that’s still not knowledge. Its just more informed conjecture.
What if we asked Robert?
Finally, the “truth” comes out. He
reveals that he also has a home in Colorado, and Colorado has always been “his
real home.” All this time, Colorado was
not even on our radar. Then we look in
the newspaper, and find the Florida Dept of Revenue is suing Robert, claiming
he’s really a resident of their state after all. We realize that Robert’s residency is
something amorphous; truly not known to anyone.
The lesson here is that cities can only be in one
place. But people can live in many
houses while calling one or several “home.”
And observers can define “home” in different ways. That’s obvious when I say it, but it wasn’t
obvious to the people who assumed Robert lived in Miami all this time. When we look at the barrage of data flowing
into our heads, it can be very hard to separate what’s known from what’s
believed, and make choices with the best chances of a correct outcome.
The fact is, not everything can be known. We must make some decisions based on belief and even hope or fear. But we should do our best to understand when we are doing so, and when we operate from a position of proof - of knowledge.
The fact is, not everything can be known. We must make some decisions based on belief and even hope or fear. But we should do our best to understand when we are doing so, and when we operate from a position of proof - of knowledge.
What do you think?
Has confusion of knowing and believing affected your life? How so?
John Elder Robison
Comments
You did a pretty good job of tying it together with "Sometimes we have to make decisions based on belief".
I agree. After 9/11, there was a lot of talk about "Evil" in the world. Taking it on as a logic problem, I tried to reduce it until the basic actions of people were isolated from random acts (both from belief and from knowledge), and my result was a single definition: Evil is an action taken based on an UNQUESTIONED belief. Humans don't have time to always know the right thing to do from gathering enough facts, but as a collective group, they can agree to behave according to rules that are evaluated and chosen consciously. Too often, we allow ourselves to be governed by conditioning rather than sensible learning, and whether it is a bully that believes bullying is OK, or an Empire that thinks "Might is Right", or an education system that follows propagandist teaching of History: it is the responsibility of good people to question anything that coerces them into acting in a way that may cause harm, or inaction that allows harm. How many "knew" that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction? How many believe that God is on 'their' side?
Next week, everything you've learned could be wrong, depending who is supplying the "proof". Today's miracle drug is taken off the market tomorrow because it causes diabetes or heart disease. Sausage...
But pure science, not the making sausage kind, is beautiful. And rare.