Experiential And Intellectual Understanding

A person can understand something intellectually without knowing it experientially.  I am in no way pitting logic and experience against each other, for they are completely intertwined in epistemology at a basic level [1].  I mean, instead, that one does not have to directly experience something to comprehend, contemplate, or know it intimately.  One can go an entire lifetime without a particular experience and still deeply understand the nature and ramifications of that experience.

For instance, I don't have to see a dinosaur to understand what a dinosaur is.  Likewise, I don't have to be married to understand marriage from a conceptual, relational, and theological standpoint.  Some people might think that a person's singleness means he or she does not, or even cannot, understand marriage, but this is illogical nonsense.  I also have no need to be seven feet tall to understand what it means to be seven feet tall, just like I have no need to struggle with insomnia to understand what insomnia can be like.

I have never witnessed outer space itself.  Does this mean I cannot understand outer space?  I have not graduated from college yet.  Does this mean I cannot understand post-graduate life?  Of course I can understand both of these things!  In fact, I am capable of understanding the concepts themselves with absolute clarity, despite having never visited outer space or graduated from college.  It takes only a brief period of reflection to become aware of this.  Even where there is no direct experiential understanding, a person can have a thorough intellectual understanding of a thing.

Some people might try to deflect away a criticism, suggestion, or comment by saying that the person offering it can't relate to their experiences.  While the latter point may be true, this does nothing to invalidate the criticism or suggestion, because a person can, through reason, understand a thing without having ever experienced it for himself or herself.  All knowledge involves experience, but this is can be merely the experiences of introspection and reasoning, not the direct experience of a situation.


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/09/the-necessity-of-experience-to-knowledge.html