We can sometimes love what we do not understand, but it is impossible completely to understand what we do not love.

Jameson contrasts two asymmetries in human perception: affection can precede comprehension, but deep comprehension rarely occurs without some form of sympathetic attachment. The first clause admits that love may be instinctive, imaginative, or projected onto what remains partly obscure. The second clause argues that “complete” understanding is not merely intellectual mastery; it requires a receptive, charitable stance—an inward willingness to enter another person, artwork, or idea on its own terms. In this view, love functions as an epistemic condition: it opens attention, patience, and interpretive generosity, without which understanding stays partial or distorted.