Objective knowledge is that which is taken toward it-alterity, an other that does not possess language, which is observed from a distance. The mind can wrap its fingers around what is objective and comprehend it. (com– ‘together’ + prehendere ‘grasp.’)

Transcendental knowledge is that which is taken toward thou-alterity, an other that does possess language, with whom we are involved within a situation that contains us. There is nothing here that the mind can comprehend, though comprehension nearly always accompanies it. Understanding places the understander in an intellectual (aka spiritual) relationship with something that exceeds the reach of its fingers. At best we touch it.

Practical knowledge is knowing what to do in a situation. What is a situation? It is being placed in the midst of manifold alterity. Practical knowledge responds, sometimes with words, sometimes with actions, sometimes listening, sometimes observing. It responds to the things of the world in knowing them objectively, and it responds to its fellow thous by learning and teaching.

Somehow we inhabit a world infinitely larger than any and all of us, while at the same containing the entire world inside each of us and all of us — and all the while, here we are among one another speaking and listening and responding.