ABSTRACT
There is a very subtle difference if any between really knowing someone and really understanding them. Some people might wish to claim that the people cannot ever really know fellows, and a point of view has been reflected in certain metaphysical theories that claim to present a view of the nature of man and his place in the world. There is no need to find the notion of personal relations either puzzling or mystical. Knowledge of others would then have for its foundation something like relations between the child and others based on feeling. The view that a human being can be summed up in terms of a collection of roles seems to the author not only an inadequate view of human beings, but, if he may so put it, a corrupt one.
