To misunderstand, to refuse to understand something deemed irrelevant, and to treat something as impossible to understand — all three excuse us from understanding.

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When we understand something someone tells us, what is understood appears to be the subject matter of the speech. In fact, much of the substance of the understanding is the speaking subject, and the subject matter is the medium that makes this intersubjective understanding possible.

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When a person seems hostile to reality, this indicates hostility toward alien minds: minds who make themselves known through new understandings of reality.