INTRODUCTION

We could say that every creature ‘knows’ in the sense that it knows the ways of its world. But what makes it different for us, for humans, is that we do not simply know our world, we know that we know. And this is what is meant by the phrase ‘to know consciously’. This part of the book is about the everyday and commonplace kind of knowing that has its basis in the shared knowledge of our human condition. In the spirit of this book, we need to suspend belief in what we think we know and try out and test out alternative standpoints. Whatever it is to know anything is to have a standpoint and know with that standpoint.

Part iii differs from Parts i and ii in the way that conscious experience is examined. In Part i, we took the verb ‘to be’ as the main focus. In Part ii, we took the verb ‘to have’. Here in Part iii we will take the verb ‘to know’ and use this to explore what it means ‘to know consciously’.

I believe that knowing is a way of seeing things. It is only because we can see things differently that we can know anything consciously. We look with a way of looking: it’s a bit topsy-turvy. Rather than knowing what’s ‘out there’ (point away from your body) using what’s ‘in here’ (point to your own head) we need to start with what we share, with what is common between us. We look with a way of looking and not in some kind of unassuming innocent way. We know from a standpoint.