The English Language - Is This A Good Example ?

Question

Can anyone tell me please, what this Donald Rumsfield quote actually means ?

"Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there 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 — the ones we don't know we don't know."

Answer 1

It makes total sense to me, things we know and things we don't know, things we do know we know, and things we don't know that we don't know,

Answer 2

This does actually make some sense for once! I quite like it and have used it professionally as it makes sense in the scientific field but also gets a laugh.

So - you can never say with confidence that something has not happened. You can say if something has happened usually. But to prove something has NOT happened you would need to search and search for an instance, and one instance where it has happened would disprove your statement. Whereas it can be quite quick to turn up an instance where something has happened, which proves your statement.

As for the next bit, well that's the best bit. In the example of say space shuttle launch (not a serious example btw):
We know there is a problem with the foam. This is a known known (now anyway).
A known unknown is that we don't know the exact conditions under which the foam fails, but we do know there is a problem, so we can make allowances and take it into account in our calculations (you would be pessimistic in your modelling). Basically you can scope out things that might go wrong and take them into account.
The unknown unknowns are the list of things that could go wrong that we've never even thought could happen. I can't imagine that the giant spaghetti monster reaching out and stealing the shuttle is on NASA's list, although now I've suggested it, if they scope it out, it graduates to the status of a known unknown.

This probably is even more confusing than Donald!

Answer 3

This is a horrendous example of the english language, and I'd certainly recommend he be banned from public speaking for ever uttering it, but with that said.

He's dividing the governments intelligence into two categories:

what they know

What they don't know.

with the "what they know" category

He's saying there are things they know and have confirmed to be true and things they know which they haven't confirmed

for example, a known known (something that they are aware of and know to be true) could be the armor capability of another country, like how many tanks saddam hussein had before the first gulf war.

An example of a known unknown (something that they are aware exists but don't know anything about it) could be the strength of the insurgency in iraq (they know it exists and have some basic ideas about it, but have no clue as to its real numbers, organization, etc)

with the "things they don't know" category

he's saying there are things out there which they have absolutely no idea about

so a unknown unknown would be something that would be relevant for them to know, but they don't even know it exists

for example there could be (I'm not advocating this position just using it as an example) a major world power supporting the insurgency in iraq. this would be very important to know, but they don't even know to look for it.

Answer 4

It is an unnecessarily long and wordy quote to skirt the real issue of lack of results in the campaign. He is saying that facts that are known stay that, but what is "unknown" or what hasn't happened yet you can't pin down because any number of things could affect it. It's a way of avoiding being labeled a failure because one doesn't know what could still happen.

Answer 5

Hi,

strangely this IS a sensible quote.

As an example...If a person says, 'John came in to work sober yesterday.' It appears to be stating one fact. But it also suggests that John usually comes in to work drunk. (yet it doesn't 'actually' say, does it?)

Somewhere (I think it was on a chat show interview in the UK, there was a very complete explanation of this DR quote and it was very entertaining (and very confusing)

My brain at this time in the morning isn't really up to attempting to decipher all the complexities, but it DOES make sense, honest!

Not that my explanation is much help, I fear. But good question.

BobSpain

Answer 6

we live in a world of new discoveries of the unknown. however the more we know the more question we have of the unknown because the known expand the spectrum of the unknown

Answer 7

I wasn't aware that he was a candidate for the Presidency. But, as a teacher, I would say, 'Shows promise.'
Robert Browning (the poet) was once asked what a certain line of poetry meant. His answer: 'When I wrote that, only God and I knew what it meant; now only God knows.'

Answer 8

I think he is showing the mathematical side of the english language by us ++, +- etc whereby a double negative means a positive and so on!
OR he could just be waffling!

Answer 9

Rumfield, Bush, intelligence. Never in history has there been a truer oxymoron. Or should I say a couple of oxymorons?

Answer 10

It means there was an awkward silence to fill, and he thought he'd do his Bush impression to see what would happen.