Certainty, the fictitious essence of philosophy

Shin-Ichi Yuasa

pp. 83-103

in: Burt C. Hopkins (ed), Phenomenology, Berlin, Springer, 1999

Abstract

A hen takes her mirror image for one of her family. A Japanese monkey, lowest ranking species in the monkey group, turns his back on his mirror image in order to be mounted. For them, the mirror image, or more precisely the object seen in the mirror, has the same reality as the "real one." Contrary to this, a human baby, even prior to one year of age, can differentiate the "unreal" object of a mirror image from the reality of the object immediately perceived. The baby who mistakes his mirror image for a real one would think that the alleged "real image" in a mirror suddenly disappears when the mirror before him is taken away. The baby in this period (around six months old) seems to "think" that when a toy is covered with a cloth, it disappears and would not try to remove the cloth in order to find the toy.¹ The baby is, so to speak, in a magic garden.