Full Idea
Organisms come to better understand their worlds by coming to better understand themselves and the ways in which their own structures engage their worlds.
Gist of Idea
Organisms understand their worlds better if they understand themselves
Source
Robert van Gulick (Mirror Mirror - Is That All? [2006], §III)
Book Reference
'Self-Representational Approaches to Consciousness', ed/tr. Kriegel,U /Williford,K [MIT 2006], p.23
A Reaction
Van Gulick is defending a higher-order theory of consciousness, but this strikes me as a good rationale for the target of philosophy, which has increasingly (since Descartes) focused on understanding our own minds.