ABSTRACT
This is a volume concerned with the question of knowing, with how we realise and understand the world around us, both physical and social, concrete and abstract. The immediacy of many of our transactions with the world, and indeed with each other, masks the complexity of the process by which these transactions occur. Whether tinkering with motor-car engines, or working out new recipes in the kitchen, budgeting our expenditure to fit our income or reading a novel, we are engaged in making assumptions on the basis of our knowledge and adjusting our expectations in the light of what actually, or even potentially, happens. Even in less obviously intellectual pursuits, such as recognising objects or trying to catch the eye of a busy shop assistant, the observed action is based on sets of relatively complex, interlocking expectations. The speed of many judgments and decisions belies- the complexity that goes into their making.
