There are known knowns
There are known knowns ... But there are also unknown unknowns (English for "There are known acquaintances ... But there are also unknown unknowns") is the best-known saying of the then US Defense Minister Donald Rumsfeld , which he made during a press conference in February 2002.
The quote became known far beyond the question at that time in the run-up to the Third Gulf War and was subsequently used in public like specialist literature on risk assessments. Rumsfeld himself alluded to his saying with the title of his 2011 biography Known and Unknown: A Memoir .
use
Donald Rumsfeld said at a press conference on February 12, 2002:
- "[T] here are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - there are things we do not know we don't know. "
- “There are known acquaintances, there are things that we know we know. We also know that there are known unknowns, that is, we know there are some things that we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns - there are things that we don't know that we don't know. "
In doing so, he avoided addressing the lack of evidence at the press conference at the time (cf. rationale for the Iraq war ) that linked the government of Iraq to the supply of weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups.
background
The statement probably goes back to a presentation by Nassim Nicholas Taleb , who had already sketched the theses he had elaborated in 2007 in The Black Swan: The Power of Highly Unlikely Events in a previous book (German fools of chance ) and was invited to a presentation at the American Department of Defense was. Kirk Borne, a former data specialist at NASA, also claimed authorship for a TED presentation. The core message in “The Black Swan” is that unknown unknowns cause significant upheavals, but cannot be foreseen or simply averted.
The 2x2 matrix with "known / unknown" goes back to the American psychologists Joseph Luft (1916–2014) and Harrington Ingham (1916–1995). The Johari window named after them has been an analytical tool for self and external perception that has been established since 1955.
Reactions
Rumsfeld was accused of having expressed himself incomprehensibly or incorrectly, among others by the British interest group Plain English Campaign, which works as a language guardian for the purity of the English language. The Sprachgesellschaft awarded the “Foot in Mouth” prize for 2003 to Rumsfeld for this quote - with the comment: “We think we know what he means. But we don't know if he really knows ”.
The linguist Geoffrey Pullum , however, described the quote as "syntactically, semantically, logically and rhetorically flawless". The conservative Canadian columnist Mark Steyn and the Australian economist and blogger John Quiggin also spoke out in favor of the turn.
The psychoanalytic philosopher Slavoj Žižek extrapolated a fourth from these three categories, the “unknown known”, which we willingly refuse to recognize that we know it: “If Rumsfeld believed that the most important dangers in the confrontation with Iraq were the 'unknown unknown 'were, that is, the threats posed by Saddam , the nature of which we did not even suspect, then the Abu Ghraib scandal shows us that the greatest dangers emanate from the' unknown acquaintances' - the denied beliefs, assumptions and obscene practices of whom we pretend not to know, even if they are the basis of our public values. ”Žižek also incorporated the ideas of the“ known unknown ”and“ unknown known ”into his documentary on“ The Reality of the Virtual ”.
The sociologists Christopher Daase and Oliver Kessler saw the cognitive framework of political action (see framing ) correctly formulated by Rumsfeld, the only thing missing is the important fourth field that we do not want to know , knowledge that remains unconscious or hidden.
A formulation of all four aspects can already be found in classical Persian literature. The Persian - Tajik poet Ibn Yamin (* 1286 in Faryumad, near Sebzevar , † 1368) (ابن یمین فریومدی) wrote in the 13th century that there are four types of men:
- Those who know and know that they know ... His horse of wisdom will reach heaven.
- Those who know but don't know they know ... He falls asleep quickly, so he has to be woken up.
- Those who don't know but know they don't know ... His crippling mule will eventually bring him home.
- Those who do not know and do not know that they do not know ... He will be forever lost in his oblivion.
Popular culture
Since Rumsfeld's speech, the full quotation has also appeared in popular culture: the two most important terms from it - "known knowns" and "unknown unknowns":
- The title of Jeffrey Rotte's novel The Unknown Knowns. is an allusion to the quote and the full quote is quoted in the book inscription.
- The quote is used in the CD The Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld and Other Fresh American Art Songs (The Poetry of Rumsfeld and Other New American Art Songs )
- Hart Seely has published a compilation of Rumsfeld's quotes under the title "Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld." (2003).
- In the American animated television series The Boondocks , Donald Rumsfeld is played by the character Gin Rummy and often uses the quote "unknown unknowns".
- The punk rock band No Use for a Name used the full quote in their song "Fields of Agony" for the album "Rock Against Bush, Vol. 2"
- In the satirical, political cartoon series "Lil 'Bush", the character Lil' Rummy uses the quote "unknown unknowns" in the episode "Lil 'George and Lil' Tony Blair".
- Joan Jett uses the full “unknown unknowns” quote in her song “Riddles”.
- The Belgian director Johan Grimonprez ends his film “Double Take” (2009) with a quote from Rumsfeld.
- In the play "I am Providence" by Wilke Weermann , the quotation is presented in German and placed in the context of the "cosmic horror" of the author Lovecraft , which is based on the ignorance of higher, often hostile powers.
See also
Web links
- Rumsfeld's full quote in his speech at the press conference (on youtube, length: 34 seconds)
Individual evidence
- ^ DoD News Briefing - Secretary Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers (Defense.gov News Transcript, United States Department of Defense (defense.gov))
- ↑ David A. Maluf, Yuri O. Gawdiak, David G. Bell: On Space Exploration and Human Error: A paper on reliability and safety. (Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science. Hilton Waikoloa Village, HI, Jan. 3-6, 2005)
- ↑ Days that shook the world , Oliver Burkeman, book review in The Guardian 2007
- ↑ A Point of View: See no evil January 10, 2014
- ↑ Course book 180: Not knowing (not knowing (sic!)), Armin Nassehi, Peter Felixberger Murmann Verlag DE, December 2, 2014
- ↑ Big Data, Small World: Kirk Borne at TEDxGeorgeMasonU
- ↑ Mark Steyn: Rummy speaks the truth, not gobbledygook. (December 9, 2003, Daily Telegraph)
- ↑ Political gossip "... there are also unknown unknowns ..." (www.sueddeutsche.de, December 1, 2002)
- ^ Geoffrey K. Pullum: "Language Log: No foot in mouth" (December 2, 2003, University of Pennsylvania - Language Log)
- ↑ John Quiggin: In Defense of Rumsfeld. (February 10, 2004)
- ↑ Slavoj Žižek: What Rumsfeld Doesn't Know That He Knows About Abu Ghraib.
- ↑ Knowns and Unknowns in the 'War on Terror': Uncertainty and the Political Construction of Danger, Christopher Daase and Oliver Kessler, Security Dialogue, December 2007; vol. 38, 4: pp. 411-434.
- ^ The Poetry of Donald Rumsfeld