If you think that you understand things you probably don’t.

A piece of text-based art on the subject of intellectual certainty.

The statement in the work is meant to show the desirability of a degree of scepticism when dealing with any subject that requires a depth of reflection, such as politics or philosophy.

If you think that you understand a concept in politics or philosophy (or many other subjects) the chances are that you’re not taking enough factors into account, which gives you a false sense of clarity.

This is especially true when you encounter a new subject. The first information that you acquire on the subject may seem to make perfect sense, but that may only be because you haven’t yet been exposed to other information which may undermine the original certainty.

There is a well-known metaphor for the acquisition of knowledge which explains what I mean.

Imagine a circle which stands for the total amount of knowledge that a particular person has. The edge of the circle represents the boundary between what the person knows (the inside of the circle) and what the person doesn’t know (the outside of the circle). The person is aware of the boundary and realises that there is some knowledge which is just outside the circle but that is ‘touching’ the circle, meaning that the person is aware that there is some knowledge that is just beyond their current learning. When the person knows very little about something (such as when they are very young or when a subject is new to them) the circle is very small, because there isn’t a great deal of knowledge inside it. As the person acquires knowledge the circle becomes larger. As a result the circumference of the circle becomes larger too, meaning that the person becomes aware that there is more knowledge that is just beyond their current state of learning.

Essentially, the more you know, the more you realise that you don’t know.