Understanding

Template:Three other uses Understanding is a psychological process related to an abstract or physical object, such as, person, situation, or message whereby one is able to think about it and use concepts to deal adequately with that object.

An understanding is the limit of a conceptualization. To understand something is to have conceptualized it to a given measure.

Examples

1. One understands the weather if one is able to predict and to give an explanation of some of its features, etc.
2. A psychiatrist understands another person's anxieties if he/she knows that person's anxieties, their causes, and can give useful advice on how to cope with the anxiety.
3. A person understands a command if he/she knows who gave it, what is expected by the issuer, and whether the command is legitimate.
4. One understands a reasoning, an argument, or a language if one can consciously reproduce the information content conveyed by the message.
5. One understands a mathematical concept if one can solve problems using it, especially problems that are not similar to what one has seen before.

Is understanding definable?

YES!

Religious Perspectives

In Catholicism and Anglicanism, understanding is one of the Seven gifts of the Holy Spirit.

See also

• Awareness
• Chinese Room
• Epistemology
• Knowledge
• Meaning (linguistics)
• Thought
• Binah (Kabbalah)
• Informational listening
• Effective listening