In the beginning is the relation, not the word or the deed. There is no thing that is given first of all without context, relation or function. Without these, I could not experience or perceive anything, but they are not themselves perceptible. This does not mean they are pure ideas floating above experience. Experience is neither real nor ideal, but an admixture of both. What is ideal is real; what is real is ideal. This is why the old divisions between idealism and materialism, or rationalism and empiricism, no longer make sense.
