blackhole

So far we have discussed what makes a theory scientific. But until now we have failed to question the most fundamental building block – the observation. (Here, the term observation refers both to direct natural observation, as in astronomy or geology, or the result of an experiment, as is the case with experimental sciences such as chemistry and physics.) As discussed earlier, no scientific theory can contradict any ‘real world’ observation. These observations, however, are never objective, and can only be done by means of direct or indirect sensory perception. To use a trivial example, when we drop a heavy body, to our eyes it seems to be falling down. If we wanted to confirm our visual observation by using other senses, we may choose to attach a sound-making device to the falling and use our hearing, or let it fall on our foot and use our sense of touch to confirm this fact. Being aware of to the unreliability of our senses, we may even decide to use instruments to measure and record the experiment. But even then, to analyze the recording results, we will still depend on human senses and interpretation.

It is the consistency of the observation that we seek, and if all our observations were consistent we would feel confident that heavy objects fall down, and no scientific theory should contradict this observation.

With some ingenuity, we might even be able to construct a new theory (as Newton did) that would explain and predict behavior of objects in general. Nevertheless, as objective as scientists may be, it is human perception that determines the consistency of the observations, and therefore, it is human perception, rather than ‘reality’, that the theory will conform with. Anything that cannot be observed, directly or indirectly, by our senses is outside the realm of scientific theory and science in general, as acknowledged by Einstein (1879–1955):

He [the scientist] may never be quite sure his picture is the only one which could explain his observations. He will never be able to compare his picture with the real mechanism and he cannot even imagine the possibility of the meaning of such a comparison.

The meaning of such comparison, beyond human sensory perception, is where science ends and the exploration of reality begins.