It is interesting that there was cultural background to Rumsfeld's utterance,
but it was tortured and unnecessary phrasing nonetheless.
And it pales rather in comparison with some of the double-talk that took place
at the time -- Over Here.
Chris
On 14 Sep 2011, at 17:49, Chuck Norcutt wrote:
> Rumfeld has uttered some doozies but an "unknown known" is not one of
> them. What he said was: "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."
>
> But someone has suggested that "unknown knowns" should have been a
> fourth category in that statement.
>
> For a linguistic defense of Rumsfeld see this Wiki article:
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_known_knowns>
>
> From the same Wiki article this quote from Persian literature of 1286.
>
> One who knows and knows that he knows... This is a man of knowledge; get
> to know him!
> One who knows, but doesn't know that he knows... This is a man who's
> unaware, so bring it to his attention.
> One who doesn't know, but knows that he doesn't know... This is an
> illiterate man; teach him!
> One who doesn't know and doesn't know that he doesn't know... This is an
> ignorant man; and will be ignorant forever!
>
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