Per speculum in aenigmate

We are dealing here with an intertwining of two phenomena that marks a discontinuity in the simplicity of the world as it appears to our eyes, and which can be summarized in two brief statements: 1) the world itself is doubled; 2) he who looks becomes the object of his own vision perception. The two senses of discontinuity as evoked by these phrases are not, however, analogous in scope. The doubling of the world continues to be the object perceived by the observer, who compares the reflected object with the real one, and is in fact able to work out the paradigm, or criterion, that signifies for him the ‘image’ of a thing. The second statement is different: the inclusion of the observer in the mirror’s reflection makes something appear – something which previously, in the hypothetical world without mirrors, did not exist. A person’s face, for example, which, although seen by the eyes of others, he cannot see for himself.