[elemesmedve]

I think we cannot know anything at all, in the sense of completely understanding and knowing the "essence" of something. All our knowledge is instrumental. We have pragmatic theories and that's all we'll ever have. The existence of a (physical) reality? A (very useful) theory. Existence of "things"? It's the pragmatic way our thinking works.

Consciousness comes first, theories about "reality" come after. Expecting of "solving" the "mystery of consciousness" is futile. Existence is mystical and unknowable.

Still, it's very useful to strive for understanding and explanations, we just have to accept our limitations.