"You know him?"

I know you.

You know me.

Cognitively, I know a lot of things. If I touch the stove top when it is red, I will get burned. Two of anything added to two of any other thing will result in four somethings. The square root of sixteen is four. Apples grow on trees. Peanuts do not. Spanish is spoken in Mexico. English is spoken in America. French is spoken in France.

These things are known to me, either through empirical study or causal physiological experience. I know these things through repetition and experience. They are cognitive and definable objectives. With this, am I comfortable.

What then does it mean to know another bundle of cognitive knowledge and experience? How then can I say I know another person? What is there to know about them, either through empirical study or physiological experience? What they want? Whom they love? Where they like to go? What they believe? How can I know these things?

I must interact. I must engage. You read a book. You touch quartz. You disect fetal pigs. To learn we must invade...so in some sense to know someone is to invade them. It's easy enough to cut open a pickled pig, but another person is different. They must open up to you and allow you in. That is the begining of knowledge.

It is then cultivated in a life long interaction of invasion and concession; a battle of attrition for some and a pyhrric victory for others.

Knowledge of another.



The only good war.