The Subject of Perception

^'105' This certainty of perception wholly refuses to come out if we direct its attention to a specific instance of its perceived object, such as the night-Now.

It only comes out if we

We must let ourselves point it out for the truth of this immediate relation is the truth of this ego which restricts itself to a Now or a Here.

Were we to examine this truth afterwards, or stand at a distance from it, it would have no meaning at all; for that would do away with the immediacy, which is of its essence.

We have therefore to enter the same point of time or space, indicate them, point them out to ourselves, i.e. we must let ourselves take the place of the very same I, the very same This, which is the subject knowing with certainty.

How is that immediate constituted?

The Now is pointed out as this Now.

• But this Now already ceased to be when it is pointed out.

The new Now is different from the Now a moment ago.

• The past-Now no longer has the truth of being.

In thus pointing out the Now, we see a process:

1. I point out the Now, and it is asserted to be the truth.

I point it out, however, as something that has been, or as something cancelled and done away with.

2. I then assert a new Now

3. But this Now is no longer the new Now.

This makes me return to the first position.

The Now and pointing out the Now reveals that neither the one nor the other is an immediate simple fact, but a process with diverse moments in it.

1. A This is set up. It is, however, rather an other that is set up.

2. The This is superseded by this other.

3. This otherness, this cancelling of the former, is itself again annulled, and so turned back to the first.

But this first, reflected thus into itself, is not exactly the same as it was to begin with, namely something immediate. Rather it is a something reflected into-self, a simple entity which remains in its otherness, what it is: a Now which is any number of Nows.

That is the Genuinely true Now; the Now is simple day-time which has many Nows within it – hours.

A Now of that sort, again – an hour – is similarly many minutes; and this Now – a minute – in the same way many Nows and so on. Showing, indicating, pointing out [the Now] is thus itself the very process which expresses what the Now in truth really is: namely a result, or a plurality of Nows all taken together.

And the pointing, out is the way of getting to know, of experiencing, that Now is a universal.

The Here pointed out, which I keep hold of, is likewise a this Here which, in fact, is not this Here, but a Before and Behind, an Above and Below, a Right and Left.

The Above is itself likewise this manifold otherness – above, below, etc.

The Here, which was to be pointed out, disappears in other Heres, and these disappear similarly. What is pointed out, held fast, and is permanents a negative This, which only is so when the Heres are taken as they should be, but therein cancel one another; it is a simple complex of many Heres.

The Here that is “meant” would be the point. But it is not: rather, when it is pointed out as being, as having existence, that very act of pointing out proves to be not immediate knowledge, but a process, a movement from the Here “meant” through a plurality of Heres to the universal Here, which is a simple plurality of Heres, just as day is a simple plurality of Nows.