How Human Observation of the Natural World Can Differ from What the World Really Is

Abstract

Traditionally, scientists and philosophers of science have worked under the assumption that humans are pretty good at making observations of the natural world. Many thinkers, as far back as antiquity, recognized that experience could lead us astray and thus favored deductive systems of reasoning; however, to justify deduction, early philosophers argued for humans’ innate ability to perceive fundamental truths and correct base axioms. Empiricists clearly rejected this idea, favoring our ability to observe nature by using our senses over some perception of fundamental truths. However, both camps seemed to accept that humans could observe, or at least gather base information, about the natural world in a meaningful way, although there has not been uniform agreement on this. 1