Can Understanding Exist Without Communication?

Kylie Blenkhorn

Can Understanding Exist Without Communication?

Lately, I’ve been sitting with a big question: Can we truly understand something on our own, or is all knowledge shaped by the people and world around us?

Philosophers have debated this for centuries. Thinkers like René Descartes believed that some knowledge begins within us. His famous idea: “I think, therefore I am” suggests that at least some understanding can exist independently of others.  Similarly, John Locke argued that knowledge starts with individual experience.

But more recent thinkers challenge that idea.  Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann show how our understanding of reality is shaped through social interaction, through language, culture, and shared meaning.  Thomas S. Kuhn takes this even further, arguing that even science (which we often think of as objective) is influenced by communities and shifting “paradigms.”  And Jennifer Lackey reminds us that much of what we know comes from others: we rely on trust, testimony, and communication every day.

So where does that leave us?

For me, the answer sits somewhere in the middle. Yes, we can have individual thoughts, experiences, and moments of insight. But understanding, the kind that is meaningful, applicable, and shared, seems to depend on communication.  Without language, relationships, and community, our ideas would remain isolated and limited.

This perspective has really shifted how I think about teaching.  Learning isn’t just about delivering and regurgitating information. It’s really about creating spaces where students can talk, question, and build knowledge together.  I think it’s also why frameworks like the First Peoples Principles of Learning resonate so deeply. They remind us that learning is relational, rooted in community, and connected to lived experience.

At the end of the day, I’m left with this to ponder: maybe understanding can begin alone but it doesn’t fully exist until it’s shared.

Well, what do you think?