To Know What You Know, and Know What You Do Not

answered by Analects of Confucius, Wei Zheng

기원전 5세기(공자 언행록)

🎬 TODAY'S FILM — IT ASKS THIS

Rashomon (1950)

dir. Akira Kurosawa · Japan

About a single event, several people put forward their own differing accounts, each full of certainty. Each believes what they saw is the truth, yet the stories contradict one another. When what is true finally cannot be known, on what ground do we say we know, and judge another?

THE QUESTION THE FILM ASKS

Drunk on the force of certainty, do I declare that I know what I in fact do not?

THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER · ORIGINAL

知之爲知之

知之爲知之不知爲不知是知也

📜 THE CLASSIC'S ANSWER

To say you know what you know, and know what you do not — that is real knowledge.

💡 TL;DR

Confucius found real knowledge in admitting what one does not know.

📝The Classic Answers

Confucius found real knowledge in admitting what one does not know. When many accounts, each full of certainty, contradict one another, the size of a conviction is no proof of the truth. The more each believes what they saw is true, the more easily we mistake certainty for knowledge. Certainty is strong, but its strength does not guarantee the truth. Where I would declare what is true, I choose to separate what I am sure of from what I actually know, and to honestly admit the gap between.

— ONGO · Curator

🌱Apply It Today

If you made a judgment in certainty today, sort in writing what you 'actually know' from what you 'merely feel sure of.'

📖 Classic Source: Analects of Confucius, Wei Zheng. Ancient text in the public domain; rendered and interpreted independently by ONGO.
The film is honored as an equal questioner; its plot is rendered only as a universal dilemma. The classic source is an ancient text (Public Domain), and the reflection is 100% original ONGO content.