Excerpt from The Anaesthetic Revelation and the Gist of Philosophy The inveterate and' abiding knot or twist which baffles philosophy (as a pursuit of the truth of life) is, in general terms, the identity and difference of the same and the oth er; and in particular terms, the identity and difference of being and knowing, of life and logic, of things and thinking, of reason and sense, of reality and appearance, of something and nothing, of universal and particular, of one and all. Whichever of these couples we cogitate and take apart, on either hand we are forced to confess the same in the other - identity and difference. As a sufficient illustration of the philosophical difficulty we take the identity and difference of being and knowing, and indulge the curiosity of knowing what we are. We immediately encounter this puzzle: If we know what we are, still we know as we are, - for what is known and what knows are then the same, - and then also being and know ing are the same, - and what we are is simply knowledge yet, knowledge of (or of) what we are. The distinction is still open between being and knowledge, - the identity and difference are alike confest; - and the question, What are wei is only reput and emphasised what are we then, if we know so intimately? Why are we not satisfied - There are two considerations wherein we are not satisfied one is, We know many particulars which we do not usually think we are; and the other is, In all we know of what we are there is no satisfaction for another curiosity, namely, why we are - we doubt our possessing real knowledge of aught, while we lack the secret of commanding its presence and its absence. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.