Quotation
Last reviewed:
“I learned very early the difference between knowing the name of something and knowing something.”
Richard Feynman · Thinkers beyond philosophy · Modern · 1988; the lesson is also in the 1966 talk What is Science?
What does it mean?
A name, even a name in every language, is knowledge of what people call a thing. It is not knowledge of the thing. The usual reading stays with the bird his father showed him: the names leave you knowing about humans and their words. A competing reading turns the line into contempt for definitions, which a physicist who lived on exact terms did not mean. He learned, he says, to separate the label from the behaviour. The sentence is in the 1988 memoir's chapter on becoming a scientist. The 1966 talk is the earlier telling of the story. The moral is the same and the wording on this card is the book's.
Did Richard Feynman really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. His English, recalling his father, in the 1988 book. He told a form of the same bird story in the 1966 address 'What is Science?', printed in The Physics Teacher in 1969. The sentence about the difference is the 1988 line.
Where it comes from
What Do You Care What Other People Think? (1988), the chapter The Making of a Scientist
Approximate date: 1988; the lesson is also in the 1966 talk What is Science?.
How to use it
In a classroom in Birmingham, a child who can say 'mitochondria' and cannot say what changes has the name. Ask for the behaviour in ordinary words. The definition can come back after that. He is not against words. He is against stopping at them.
A mindset reading
Knowing the name is a start you should notice you have not finished. Using the sentence to sneer at anyone who uses a technical term correctly is the opposite habit.
Understand the philosophy
The chapter is a memoir of his father, not a theory of language. The key contrast is name and something. The 1974 address is the ethic of not fooling yourself once you are past the name. Chapter 7 of The Character of Physical Law is one way he thinks you check that you know something.
- knowledge
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
A name, even a name in every language, is knowledge of what people call a thing. It is not knowledge of the thing. The usual reading stays with the bird his father showed him: the names leave you knowing about humans and their words. A competing reading turns the line into contempt for definitions, which a physicist who lived on exact terms did not mean. He learned, he says, to separate the label from the behaviour. The sentence is in the 1988 memoir's chapter on becoming a scientist. The 1966 talk is the earlier telling of the story. The moral is the same and the wording on this card is the book's.
Did Richard Feynman really say this?
Well attested. His English, recalling his father, in the 1988 book. He told a form of the same bird story in the 1966 address 'What is Science?', printed in The Physics Teacher in 1969. The sentence about the difference is the 1988 line.
Which work is it in?
What Do You Care What Other People Think? (1988), the chapter The Making of a Scientist Approximate date: 1988; the lesson is also in the 1966 talk What is Science?.