Abstract

In their co-authored work, Retrieving Realism, Hubert Dreyfus and Charles Taylor argue that an unfortunate epistemological picture holds us captive. Thinkers enmeshed in this picture focus on what mediates our knowledge when an inner self is distinguished from the outer world. This stance, they say, encourages doubt about whether we really know what we perceive. In this essay I argue that mediation, properly understood, and the inner/outer distinction are crucial for understanding how we know. The stratified ontology of Michael Polanyi and the emphasis on interpretation in biosemiotics provide an approach, set in an evolutionary framework, for illuminating the richness of reality. This richer view examines how and what we can know, the unfolding nature of consciousness, and the embodied depth of existential meaning.