# 15 CONSCIOUSNESS AND MEMORY

But if this is true, are we not led into what philosophers call an infinite regress, the explanation of one thing in terms of an earlier which again needs the same type of explanation? If Constable saw the English landscape in terms of Gainsborough's paintings, what about Gainsborough himself? We can answer this. Gainsborough saw the lowland scenery of East Anglia in terms of Dutch paintings which he arduously studied and copied. . . . And where did the Dutch get their vocabulary? The answer to this type of question is precisely what is known as the "history or art." — E. H. Gombrich