Timeo Dominum transeuntem, et non revertentem

knowledge (n.): “early 12c., cnawlece ‘acknowledgment of a superior, honor, worship;’ for first element see know (v.). The second element is obscure, perhaps from Scandinavian and cognate with the -lock ‘action, process,’ found in wedlock” (HARPER 2001-2021).

know (v.): “Old English cnawan (class VII strong verb; past tense cneow, past participle cnawen), ‘perceive a thing to be identical with another'” (HARPER 2001-2021).

To know is to “perceive a thing to be identical with another.” The knowledge that a thing perceived is identical with another is confirmed, and hence becomes knowledge, through the “acknowledgement of a superior.” To know is to have received the “acknowledgement of a superior” regarding a thing perceived as being identical with another. To know involves openness to pedagogy; to know is to ready oneself for the arrival of the pedagogue.

To shut oneself from the pedagogue is to do a Mark Twain.

Reasoning why something happened (or did not happen) is an exercise in reasoning.

One is challenged to challenge.

During the act of photography, the world is other to the Self that during the act of photography is other to itself. During the act of photography, the Self, as Subject, stands subjected to its subjectivity. Hence, the subject of the photograph is “as (I was tacitly aware that) I was looking at…” (Photography is quite literally memory. Memory is composition.) During the act of photography, the Self is other to itself precisely because “it (was tacitly aware that it) was looking at…” (The past is the ground of the present and yet the past is a chimera.) The Self, as Subject, peering through the viewfinder, is ready for subjection to its subjectivity. The Self, as Subject, with its eye looking through the viewfinder, is a Self that can be subjected, hence othered. Looking through the viewfinder… and snapping, the knowledge of memory becomes actuality. (We look through the viewfinder to fish for memories… which become somewhat reified when we press the shutter-release button.) At the end, knowledge is useless. ‘The photographic’ is that which leads to the photograph.

(The thing is the actuality of the shadow. The photograph is the actuality of the memory.)

Any object within the field stands as Subject subjected to the subject of a subjected Subject 🙂