Knowing the World 93possible for us also to achieve a satisfactory understand-
ing of the relationship between the mental picture and its
object. This will also lead us over the boundary where the
relationship between the human subject and the object be-
longing to the world is brought down from the purely con-
ceptual field of cognition into concrete, individuallife.
Once we know what to make of the world, it will be easy
for us to behave accordingly. We can act with our full
strength only when we know the object belonging to the
world to which we are devoting our activity.
Addendum to the new edition (1918)The view characterized here can be regarded as one to
which at first we are driven quite naturally when we begin
to reflect on our relationship to the world. But we then see
ourselves entangled in a thought-structure that dissolves it-
self as we build it. This thought-structure is such that it re-
quires more than merely theoretical refutation. It must be
lived through, so as to find a way out through insight into
the error to which it leads. It must appear in any discussion
of the relationship between human beings and the world,
not because we wish to refute others whom we believe
have an incorrect view of this relationship, but because we
realize what confusion any initial reflection on such a rela-
tionship can bring. The insight we must achieve is of how,
in such reflections, we can refuteourselves. The preceding
discussion was meant from just such a point of view.
Anyone who wishes to work out a view of the relation-
ship of human beings to the world becomes aware that we