12 - Understanding As a Learnable Skill

Summary

In this chapter, I pick up the theme advanced in Chapter 8 where I distinguished between ascription of understanding to subjects whether by parent, teacher, or scientist, to the ascription of understanding by subjects themselves. We adults ascribe understanding to children when we judge that their behavior meets the criteria for understanding, namely correctness and intersubjectivity. It is we as ascribers who make the judgment. Here I focus on the second part, namely how the children ascribe understanding whether to themselves or to others. That is, I consider the benefits that accrue to the children when they themselves learn to make ascriptions of understanding. I have already hinted at the answer: To ascribe is to judge that an interpretation has met the standards of correctness and intersubjectivity and to justify the ascription by appeal to the evidence that can warrant the judgment.