知道意味着什么？
莎莉写作文时抬起头问她的室友，“你们怎么拼写 embarrass这个单词？”
南希说，“我不确定，我想它有两个r和两个s，哦，我真的不知道。”
玛丽自鸣得意地笑了。“我猜拼写不是你的强项，南希，正确的拼写应该是e-m-b-a-r-a-s-s.，只有一个r。”
这时候莎莉已经打开了她的字典。“还是查字典吧，”她说，“我看一下，embargo, embark . . .在这里了，两个r和两个s。南希，你是对的。”
让我们更仔细地思考一下发生了什么。玛丽知道答案，但是她错了。南希不知道，但是她对了。晕了。这个“知道”是什么东西？当你知道的时候，你不知道。当你知道的时候，你不知道。
还好，它只发生在这种形式中。出现困惑是因为当我们不知道的时候，伴随着知道的感觉会呈现出来。玛丽就有这种感觉。她不再好奇，也不困惑；她确定知道答案，但是她是错的。
知道的条件
南希的状态比玛丽更好，因为她的回答是正确的。但是她不知道答案，知道比正确的答案包含更多。它还包括你知道你知道答案。
当然，这个议题不会一直像拼写一个单词那么简单。它可能需要对大量的细节或者复杂的规则或过程中的步骤的理解。（它还可能包括技巧——知道如何做什么事。。但这个词的用法与我们这里的用法稍有不同。）
知道通常还隐含着其他东西——有能力表达知道什么和如何知道它。当然不是一直是这样的。我们可能无法用文字表达出我们的知识。我们能说的最好的话是：“我就是知道，就这样”或者“我知道因为我知道”。但是这些回答是无力的，并且难以满足那些想要核实我们知识或者要得到它们的人。
原文：
What Does It Mean to Know?
Sally looks up from her composition and asks her roommates, “How do you spell embarrass?”
Nancy says, “I’m not sure. I think it has a double r and a double s. Oh, I really don’t know.”
Marie smiles her smug smile. “I guess spelling isn’t your cup of tea, Nancy. The correct spelling is e-m-b-a-r-a-s-s. Only one r.”
By this time Sally has already opened her dictionary. “Might as well check to be sure,” she says. “Let’s see, embargo, embark . . . here it is, embarrass. Double r and double s. You were right, Nancy.”
Let’s consider what happened more closely. Marie knew the answer, but she was wrong. Nancy didn’t know, but she was right. Confusing.
What kind of thing can this knowing be? When you’re doing it, you’re not doing it. And when you aren’t, you are.
Fortunately, it only appears to be that way. The confusion arises because the feelings that accompany knowing can be present when we don’t know. Marie had those feelings. She no longer wondered or experienced any confusion; she was sure of the answer. Yet she was mistaken.
Requirements of Knowing
Nancy was in a better position than Marie because she answered correctly. Yet she didn’t know, for knowing involves more than having the right answer. It also involves the realization that you have it.
The issue, of course, may not always be as simple as the spelling of a word. It may require understanding numerous details or complex principles or steps in a process. (It may also involve a skill—knowing how to do something. But that is a slightly different use of the word than concerns us here.)
Knowing usually implies something else, too—the ability to express what is known and how we came to know it. This, however, is not always so. We may not be able to express our knowledge in words. The best we may be able to say is “I just know, that’s all” or “I know because I know.” Yet these replies are feeble and hardly satisfy those who wish to verify our knowledge or acquire it.
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