Reflection for the Week–December 22

When we speak of a table in any language, we do not make it what it is. Whether we sit around it and eat and drink, or use it as a place to stack our books, we do not make it what it is. Even if we built the table, we do not make it what it is. This is because a table has an “isness” of its own as an object in the world. If this is the case and the case for reality more broadly, it would mean that we as subjects are interacting with objects that cannot be reduced to having their source and origin in us. The challenge today is to embrace that the subject and object are related and distinct, not just related. And this is monumental.