But my father had already taught me about the names of birds. Once we walked, and he said, “That is a brown-throated thrush. In German it is called the Pfleegel flügel. In Chinese it is called Keewontong. In Japanese a Towhatowharra, and so on. And when you know all the names of that bird in every language, you know nothing, but absolutely nothing, about the bird.”
So I had learned already that names don’t constitute knowledge. Of course that has caused me a certain amount of trouble since because I refuse to learn the name of anything. So when someone comes in and says, “Have you got any explanation for the Fitch‑Cronin experiment?” I say, “What’s that?”
Richard Feynman(“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!”: Adventures of a Curious Character, 1985)