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.

What do you think?  Has confusion of knowing and believing affected your life?  How so?

John Elder Robison