Some Things Are Hard to See Because They Are the Medium of Seeing

Some things are difficult to find because they are hidden.

Others are difficult to find because they are already involved in the act of looking.

A familiar philosophical pattern appears in stories about searching for what is already present.

The durable inquiry is not the story itself.

It is the structure.

We use assumptions to examine assumptions.

We use language to ask what language leaves out.

We use a point of view to investigate the point of view.

That creates a special kind of blind spot.

The medium of seeing is harder to place in front of us as another thing to be seen.

This does not require a metaphysical conclusion about a hidden Self.

It requires methodological humility.

Some questions cannot be resolved merely by collecting more objects of knowledge.

We may also have to examine the conditions through which the objects become intelligible.

The lens is difficult to notice while we are looking through it.

That is precisely why it belongs in the inquiry.