Will, Comprehension, Correspondence

An Epistemological theory can be both descriptive and normative, i. e when it both explains cognitive processes and proposes that some relation between a mental state and an object is paradigmatic of Knowledge. A common instance of the divergence of those two functions is when a Coherence theory is challenged to demonstrate Correspondence, as when Kant attempts to prove the existence of the external world on the basis of his a priori Transcendentalism. Implicitly respectful of the criterion of Correspondence is the ridicule of Kant's effort, by Moore and Heidegger, on the ground that the existence of the external world is self-evident, as is the concession of Pragmatists that probability of correspondence suffices for practical purposes. In contrast, the formulation here, that Will is the immediate matter of Comprehension, is both explanatory and normative, and, hence, the thesis rejects as irrelevant any demand to justify any presumed correlation of Comprehension to external objects, beyond the recognition that the representation of them is always mediated. Instead, it regards such correspondence as primarily a practical relation, one that needs to be created, not one that is either given as certain or as uncertain.