>>3869504All knowledge presupposes Subject and Object. Even self-consciousness (Selbstbewusstsein) therefore, is not absolutely simple, but, like our consciousness of all other things, it is subdivided into that which is known and that which knows. Now, that which is known manifests itself absolutely and exclusively as will.
The Subject accordingly knows itself exclusively as willing, but not as knowing. For the ego which represents, never can itself become representation or Object, since it conditions all representations as their necessary correlate; rather may the following beautiful passage from the sacred Upanishad be applied to it:
Id videndum non est: omnia videt; et id audiendum non est: omnia audit; sciendum non est: omnia scit: et intelligendum, non est: omnia intelligit. Præter id, videns, et sciens, et audiens, et intelligens ens aliud non est.
(What is not seen: sees everything; and what is not heard: hears everything; what is not known: knows all things: and what is not understood: understands all things. Beyond that seeing, knowing, hearing, and understanding, there is nothing else.)
