If you skip out the part of the analogy where you actually return to the complex terminology you're simplifying, you haven't produced understanding - you've only made a just-so story which is a reflection of the reality, not a justification for it.
It's the other way around: First was the concept, then the agreement which words we use to describe them.
> If you skip out the part of the analogy where you actually return to the complex terminology you're simplifying, you haven't produced understanding
Billions of people know what a telephone does and how to use one without understanding τῆλε ("tele-", distant) and φωνή ("phone", voice, talk, language). They all get the concept and nobody would argue that they need to understand the terminology as well.
Or: I can teach you to play chess without teaching a single chess-specific term. Yes, other players will laugh at you when you call the pawns "smurfs", but when you understand how to handle your smurf-army, opponents will stop laughing after hearing you announcing "death by smurf-supported horse in 2 turns". (Though they'll definitely hate you for calling a knight a horse ;).
> I can teach you to play chess without teaching a single chess-specific term. Yes, other players will laugh at you when you call the pawns "smurfs", but when you understand how to handle your smurf-army
But that doesn't remove the terminology, it only changes it. You can understand chess equally well in English, French, or Lebanese, because the syntax isn't as important as the semantics. You can't teach me chess without talking about the idea of a "piece", no matter what you end up calling it. There has to be some common groundwork.
>Billions of people know what a telephone does and how to use one without understanding τῆλε ("tele-", distant) and φωνή ("phone", voice, talk, language). They all get the concept and nobody would argue that they need to understand the terminology as well.
The etymology of words tends to have no bearing on understanding them technically. To me, that's a non-comparison.
What's really meant is more that plenty of people use a telephone without a comprehensive understanding of EM radiation. That doesn't mean they can't use their phones, it just means if you explain EM radiation to them in terms of phones, they probably aren't going to come away understanding it any better.
First it was that, to understand, we have to "actually return to the complex terminology you're simplifying". I disagree.
Now it is, that we need some common way of communicating. I agree.
But that are two different questions.
> [explaining EM radition in terms of phones does not help]
Nor does explaining EM radiation in terms of oranges. But I'd do neither. I'd first try to figure out whether you struggle with the concept of what a phone is or with the question how it works. Because step 1 in being understood is to understand what you are trying to say, to define the metric you can later use to evaluate your success in your attempt at being understood.
Great epistemological question for the ages. Vectors for the response include audience type, previous knowledge context, goal for how much needs to be conveyed...
This is the key. The person you explained it to could probably not turn around and explain it to someone else, but could walk away thinking that they understood it.
The same thing that it means to hear a bad quality 8bit, 20kbps copy of a song. It's still better than NOT hearing it, and it gives you an idea about what it entails, even if you don't hear all the information in it.
Even in everyday language we make the distinction about understanding something fully and having a rough understanding of it.
If you skip out the part of the analogy where you actually return to the complex terminology you're simplifying, you haven't produced understanding - you've only made a just-so story which is a reflection of the reality, not a justification for it.