Misinterpretation and the Creation of Knowledge

Humanity is always expanding categories of study. Within philosophy there are branches of ethics, epistemology, metaphysics, etc. Medicine has a long list of professions that range from general practitioners to geneticists. Subdivisions naturally occur like new growth on a tree. Even within persons we separate respective qualities, such as subjectivity and objectivity, despite the unifying whole of an individual’s sense of self.

The continuation of knowledge demands this kind of fracturing to continue. The branching off of disciplines means development. Seeing and developing distinctions allows growth. 

Communication is essential for any kind of knowledge to have impact though. Without it, every thought or idea is dead on arrival. The gaps between branches of knowledge are something to be spanned then. Also, the gaps within ourselves and between us and others are in the same boat. Since communication relies on a certain amount of interpretation, deciphering becomes necessary for knowledge. 

It can be disheartening to see how much of a role interpretation plays in our lives, because there's inevitably mistakes when translating. We want what we say and do to be completely understood and anything short of this is frustrating. Despite this condition though, there's a hidden yet unique opportunity. 

Within the gaps that are crossed while trying to bridge disciplines, people, and structures— creativity is necessarily used to fill in the missing data. Like a game of telephone, the variations that occur construct novel understandings. In this nonconscious act our desire to know can potentially see a reality that wasn't expressed in the first place. These subtle mistranslations that inevitably happen could be the environment necessary for mutations within thought. If this is true, the poverty and incompleteness of expression could be a key asset to the development of knowledge and understanding itself.  

The more disciplines fracture and branch in different directions, the more communication is utilized to convey the discovery. The more communication is necessary the more misinterpretation can evolve knowledge itself.