Understanding as Usability and Context-Sensitivity to Interests

Is understanding subject to a factivity constraint? That is, must the agent's representation of some subject matter be accurate in order for her to understand that subject matter? 'No', I argue in this paper. As an alternative, I formulate a novel manipulationist account of understanding. Rather than correctly representing, understanding, on this account, is a matter of being able to manipulate a representation of the world to satisfy contextually salient interests. This account of understanding is preferable to factivism, I argue, mainly for simplicity reasons. While it explains the intuitive data about understanding as successfully as factivist accounts, it is simpler by virtue of reducing the value truth bestows on understanding to that of usability.

Automated summary

This paper explores the question of whether understanding is subject to a factivity constraint. It proposes a novel manipulationist account of understanding, arguing that understanding is not about accurate representation but about manipulating a representation to satisfy contextually salient interests.