Knowledge and Understanding for Development

I am thinking of changing the name of this blog. It has been “Knowledge for Development”, but perhaps “Understanding for Development” would be a better title. Indeed, perhaps “Knowledge and Understanding for Development” would be still better.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York was founded to promote "the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding." Andrew Carnegie understood that knowledge is different than understanding, and that both have their place.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000 provides the following first definitions:

· Knowledge: The state or fact of knowing.
· Know: To perceive directly; grasp in the mind with clarity or certainty.
· Understand: To perceive and comprehend the nature and significance of; grasp.

The Dictionary of American Usage differentiates the terms know, comprehend, and understand as follows:

· To know is to be aware of something as a fact.
· To comprehend is to know something thoroughly and at the same time to perceive its relationship to certain other facts and ideas.
· To understand something is to be fully aware not only of its meaning but of its implications.

I have some ideas as to the meanings of concepts:
· Information is defined as the reduction of uncertainty.
· Knowledge is internalized information. That is, you are said to know something when you have absorbed relevant information.
· Knowledge is applied to facts that one commands.
· One can understand a process, but one is not usually said to know a process. “Understanding how something works” seems to imply a more profound appreciation than “knowing how something works”.

“Knowledge for development” has the implication of the command of facts relevant to the development process. “Scientific and technological knowledge for development” might imply not only the command of scientific and technological evidence, but of scientific and technological theory.

I suggest that “understanding for development” has the implication not only of command of those facts and theories, but of their meaning and implications. I suspect that what we really need is an understanding of the processes occurring in development, and of the implications of modifications of those processes. We have to understand how to intervene in the cultural, social and economic processes in order to improve on their outcomes.

“Understanding” can be applied to the interpersonal relations. To “understand” another person is not simply to “know” that person, but to have insight into motivation and empathy for the person’s feelings. By extension, nations with “mutual understanding” are better placed to help each other in the processes of cultural, social and economic development.