If we persist in the tradi- tional conception, according to which the thing to be known is something which exists prior to and wholly apart from the act of knowing, then discovery of the fact that the act of observa- tion, necessary in existential knowing, modifies that pre- existent something, is proof that the act of knowing gets in its own way, frustrating its own intent. If knowing is aform of doing and is to be judged like other modes by its eventual issue, this tragic conclusion is not forced upon us. Fundamen- tally, the issue is raised whether philosophy is willing to sur- render atheory of mind and its organs of knowing which originated when the practice of knowing was in its infancy.