ABSTRACT
The relationship of order exemplified by the series ABC also entails a specific relationship expressed by the word ‘between’. Thus B is ‘between’ A and C, and equally between C and A. Now the relation ‘between’ is one particular case of the reationship of surrounding (i.e. a one-dimensional form of this). It is therefore desirable to follow up the previous analysis of the relationship of order by studying in the same way the general development of the relationships of surrounding in some distinctive form, that is, without introducing euclidean figures or problems of straight lines, distances and angles. And there is, as it happens, an area particularly suitable for such a study, viz. the province of knots. These are concerned with topological relationships such as proximities and separations, as well as order, surrounding and intertwinement. Children encounter them at an early age, but they are not clearly defined and self-evident wholes, so that their spatial relations only come to be understood by degrees. This process therefore lends itself to tracing through step by step.
