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It only takes one observation to come
along and conflict with the all the previous ones and the theory is
invalid.
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If an observer can find just one planet somewhere in the universe that does not move
in an ellipse around its sun, goodbye theory, and goodbye to all the predictions and explanations
that are based on that theory.
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What we see depends on the image that falls on the retina plus the knowledge,
expectations and inner mental state of the observer,
although what we see in a wide variety of situations remains fairly stable.
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The problem of time. It takes time for the senses to receive information from the external world and more
time for the brain to process and interpret this information.This means that by the time we recognise any feature of the world and get ready to
act on that information, the event is already in the past.
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We are assuming that there is a single, unique
physical world independent of the observer – a big assumption.
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All scientific method is based on theories
of some kind. These theories in turn, are formulated in a public language. For example the word
planet has a specific meaning – a celestial (heavenly)
body moving in an elliptical orbit around a star. We start off with a theory that already
contains the definition of the theory in the word “planet.” Other examples include gas, atom,
mass, energy, light.
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Following on from the previous statement, theories precede observation and theories are fallible. If the premise in a logical deductive
statement is false, then the conclusion is suspect,
even though it is a perfectly valid deduction. For example: all dogs have five legs, Leroy is
my dog, Leroy has five legs? I don’t think so.
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