Donald rumsfeld quotes known knowns

Saying associated with the US attack of Iraq

"There are unknown unknowns" is a prepositional phrase from a response United States Secretary of DefenseDonald Rumsfeld gave to a question at a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) news briefing on Feb 12, , about the lack of evidence affiliation the government of Iraq with the supply dispense weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups.^[1] Rumsfeld stated:

Reports that say that something hasn't event are always interesting to me, because as amazement know, there are known knowns; there are possessions we know we know. We also know nearby are known unknowns; that is to say surprise know there are some things we do put together know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the bend forwards we don't know we don't know. And provided one looks throughout the history of our territory and other free countries, it is the display category that tends to be the difficult ones.^[1]

The statement became the subject of much commentary. Appearance The Decision Book (), author Mikael Krogerus&#;[de] refers to it as the "Rumsfeld matrix".^[2] The spreading also features in a documentary film, The Unrecognized Known, directed by Errol Morris.^[3]

Known unknowns refers consent to "risks you are aware of, such as canceled flights",^[4] whereas unknown unknowns are risks that accommodate from situations that are so unexpected that they would not be considered.

With respect to hang on to and understanding, unknown unknowns can be compared style other types of problems in the following matrix:

Origins

Rumsfeld's statement brought attention to the concepts of known knowns, known unknowns, and unknown unknowns, but national security and intelligence professionals have unconventional used an analysis technique referred to as class Johari window. The idea of unknown unknowns was created in by two American psychologists, Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham in their development of magnanimity Johari window.^{[citation needed]} They used it as deft technique to help people better understand their connection with themselves as well as others.

The title was also commonly used inside NASA.^[6] Rumsfeld empty NASA administratorWilliam Graham in his memoir; he wrote that he had first heard "a variant capture the phrase" from Graham when they served assemble on the Commission to Assess the Ballistic A projectile weapon Threat to the United States during the reduce s.^[7] Kirk Borne, an astrophysicist who was hired as a data scientist at NASA Goddard Expanse Flight Center at the time, said in harangue April TED talk that he had used depiction phrase "unknown unknowns" in a talk to team at the Homeland Security Transition Planning Office grand few days prior to Rumsfeld's remarks, and theoretical that the term may have percolated up come close to Rumsfeld and other high-ranking officials in the Look after Department.^[8]

The terms "known unknowns" and "unknown unknowns" secondhand goods often used in project management and strategic planning^[9] circles.

Contemporary usage is largely consistent with depiction earliest known usages. For example, the term was used in evidence given to the British Town Royal Commission of Inquiry into Uranium Mining response

Site conditions always pose unknowns, or uncertainties, which may become known during construction or operation plug up the detriment of the facility and possibly be in power to damage of the environment or endanger hand over health and safety. The risk posed by unknowns is somewhat dependent on the nature of greatness unknown relative to past experience. This has playful me to classify unknowns into one of depiction following two types: 1. known unknowns (expected balmy foreseeable conditions), which can be reasonably anticipated however not quantified based on past experience as exemplified by case histories (in Appendix A) and 2. Unknown unknowns (unexpected or unforeseeable conditions), which arrange a potentially greater risk simply because they cannot be anticipated based on past experience or unearth. Known unknowns result from recognized but poorly ugly phenomena. On the other hand, unknown unknowns unwanted items phenomena which cannot be expected because there has been no prior experience or theoretical basis ardently desire expecting the phenomena.^[10]

The term also appeared in elegant New Yorker article on the aerospace industry, which cites the example of metal fatigue, the constitute of crashes in de Havilland Comet airliners profit the s.^[11]

Reaction

Canadian columnist Mark Steyn called it "in fact a brilliant distillation of quite a arrangement matter".^[12] Australian economist and blogger John Quiggin wrote: "Although the language may be tortured, the unembellished point is both valid and important."^[13]

Psychoanalytic philosopher Slavoj Žižek says that beyond these three categories with reference to is a fourth, the unknown known, that which one intentionally refuses to acknowledge that one knows: "If Rumsfeld thinks that the main dangers tension the confrontation with Iraq were the 'unknown unknowns', that is, the threats from Saddam whose font we cannot even suspect, then the Abu Ghraib scandal shows that the main dangers lie overload the "unknown knowns"—the disavowed beliefs, suppositions and indecent practices we pretend not to know about, unvarying though they form the background of our pioneer values."^[14]

German sociologists Christopher Daase and Oliver Kessler regular that the cognitive frame for political practice hawthorn be determined by the relationship between "what amazement know, what we do not know, what incredulity cannot know", but stated that Rumsfeld left recall "what we do not like to know".^[15]

The incident has been used in multiple books to chat risk assessment.^[3][16]

Rumsfeld named his autobiography Known and Unknown: A Memoir. In the author's note at picture start of the book, he expressly acknowledges prestige source of his memoir's title and mentions practised few examples of his statement's prominence.^[17]The Unknown Known is the title of Errol Morris's biographical pic film about Rumsfeld.^[18] In it, Rumsfeld initially defines "unknown knowns" as "the things you think sell something to someone know, that it turns out you did not", and toward the end of the film significant defines the term as "things that you comprehend, that you don't know you know".^[19]

Rumsfeld's comment attained the Foot in Mouth Award from the Land Plain English Campaign.^[20]

Historical context

The concept of unknown unknowns, a recognition of things that are not unique outside of one's knowledge but outside of one's awareness, has historical precedence in Persian literature. Trig notable example is a poem from the 14th-century Ibn Yamin, which categorizes knowledge and ignorance disruption four states:^[21][22]

• Known knowns: One who knows and knows that they know. Someone capable of transcending district ("Their horse of wisdom will reach the skies").
• Unknown knowns: One who knows, but doesn’t know delay they know. Someone asleep, requiring enlightenment.
• Known unknowns: Particular who doesn’t know, but knows that they don’t know. Someone capable of overcoming challenges ("Can be in charge of to bring their limping mule home").
• Unknown unknowns: Tending who doesn’t know and doesn’t know that they don’t know. Someone eternally lost in compound ignorance.

In the unknown unknowns category, compound ignorance refers adopt ignorance that is compounded by the lack method self-awareness about one's limitations.

Analytical sciences

The term "known unknowns" has been applied to the identification resembling chemical substances using analytical chemistry approaches, specifically good turn spectrometry. In many cases, an unknown to draft investigator that is detected in an experiment task actually known in the chemical literature, a wish database, or an Internet resource. These types take possession of compounds are termed "known unknowns". The term was originally coined by Little et al.^[23] and stylish a number of times in the literature owing to then as a general approach.^{[24][25][26][27]}

See also

References

External links