Nancy Foote
Ways of Knowing
1/30/02
Reflection 1
The Agreements of Language
Language is a set of agreements. A group of individuals (from one to five billion)
learn these agreements in order to communicate knowledge, understanding and meaning,
and to form a way of knowing our world. Without these agreements there can be no
effective communication. But these agreements also create barriers and limits to other
ways of knowing about the world.
Letters are the foundation of language agreements. Of all such agreements these
are the most immutable. Languages do not lose letters of the alphabet or gain others.
The sound agreements of letters do not change as well. All speakers of English agree that
the letter “P” has the sound of p. No other possibilities are acceptable. Even in
pictograph languages, such as Chinese, the basic elements of the language are absolute.
Groups of letters form the key agreements of language. Each language determines
that certain groups of letters will form words. All other possible combinations of those
letters are agreed to be nonsensical. Until the birth of advertising, the spelling of the
agreed words was also indisputable. Now the agreements of spelling have become more
porous. Confusion in communication becomes more possible.
Agreement about the meaning of words creates communication. When meaning
is assigned to words, the first limitations to knowing are applied as well. Speakers of
English have agreed that the word “pen” means an implement for use in writing. The
object “pen” is taken out of its context – taken out of the hand, off the piece of paper,
lying on the table, in front of a window, on a bright summer day. It is as if the entire
world is taken away and the object “pen” lies quiet in complete isolation. In Chinese, the
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Nancy Foote
Ways of Knowing
1/30/02
Reflection 1
word “pen” is not taken so far out of its context. Consequently a speaker of Chinese
knows the world in a somewhat different way, bound by how meaning is attached to their
words.
Meanings of words become standardized. In the 1700’s, a quill was used for
writing. It was the only implement of writing. But when someone said “quill”, the
picture formed by two individuals could be quite different. The quill could be long or
short, have a red feather or white, have different kinds of nibs and so forth. But today,
when the word “quill” is said, virtually everyone pictures a quill of agreed upon length,
quality and color. Even now, the word “pen” has become standardized in terms of length,
basic construction and usage. Additional words are needed to talk about the color and
composition of the pen. But the basic elements have now become indisputable.
Advertising also seeks to standardize language further. When a “BIC pen” is said or
written, the image is complete, variation limited to small changes in composition or the
ink. New products such as gel pens can be created, yet the standardization of “pen”
remains unchanged. What is gained by standardization is facilitation with
communication, but what is lost is the rich variation of meaning and concept. This too
informs our way of knowing the world.
Nature defies standardization of language agreements. “Trees” still come in
almost infinite combinations of color, texture, size, shape, area, and numbers. Even as
humans seek to standardize the natural world – making all poodles alike – nature
continues to introduce surprise and serendipity. In nature, virtually nothing is unique, a
one-of-a-kind. There is not one kind of tree, but a plethora of them. Diversity is
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Nancy Foote
Ways of Knowing
1/30/02
Reflection 1
everywhere. Humans are attracted and dismayed by this essence of nature. It is what
also frightens us about gene splicing. It thwarts our drive for the standardization of
nature.
Abstract word meanings lack standardized agreement. Words such as “truth”,
“beauty”, or “love” do not have the same standardization of meaning agreement that
applies to “tree” or “ship”. These kinds of words fascinate us even as we seek to
standardize and limit the possible meanings that can be attached. But because abstract
words cannot be verified as “truth” they can never be viewed as facts.
Facts, information and knowledge are all different. A “fact” is a word that all
agree has a specific set of meanings and is not open to interpretation or mutability. A
“fact” carries the quality of being true and absolute. There are actually very few facts in
the world. What we regard as a fact is actually our agreement about the “truth” of that
fact. This also impinges on our way of knowing the world.
“Information” is a collection of word meanings. It may contain facts, as well as
words that do not have the truth agreement of facts. It is why information should always
be viewed carefully and a decision made on how “factual” is its quality. Information
comes with its own set of agreements – which words and meanings are acceptable within
the group, its tolerance for words that aren’t facts, and how “good” or “useful” the
information is.
Knowledge is information filtered by experience. Children do not have
knowledge; they have information. For them, all information is factual and the quality of
truth is overarching. But they lack the experience to transform information into facts and
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Nancy Foote
Ways of Knowing
1/30/02
Reflection 1
non-facts. It is only through maturity that we learn that information is not just about facts
and that there are very few facts in the world. This is knowledge. It contains the word
“know”, to know what is true and what is not. Knowledge is our way of knowing the
world.
Knowledge and learning are linked. The concept of learning is the internal
acquisition of language and its agreements. Such learning defines who we are and
fashions the context in which we view the world. Learning seeks knowledge. Learning
seeks truth and predictability. But how and when we learn is also bound by agreement
and language, springing from our knowledge of the world.
Meaning and understanding are different. Meaning is to information as
understanding is to knowledge. We all learn the meaning of “beauty”, but until we
experience it, it doesn’t become knowledge – it doesn’t gain its own sense of truth.
Children learn meanings and information. Adults learn understanding and knowledge.
Language is “us”. The words on this paper are founded upon the agreements we
have about the English language. The meanings, understanding, facts, information and
knowledge are all predetermined by language to convey a particular way of conceiving
our world. Yet, there are other ways of knowing this same information. There are other
ways of knowing our world. When we understand the limitations of our own language
and how deeply it conveys its own imperfect set of truths, then we can begin to “think
outside the box”, to learn new ways of knowing and expand our knowledge.
Most research is about information. Research generally produces meaning and
information. The moments when there is a paradigm shift – moving from meaning to
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Nancy Foote
Ways of Knowing
1/30/02
Reflection 1
understanding, from information to knowledge – are rare. They are the moments of
revelation. But the language in which they are formed binds even such transformational
moments explicably. The worlds of possibilities are limitless and limited. The ways of
knowing are infinite and finite. Knowing is not a truth.
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