HUMAN KNOWLEDGE: ITS SCOPE AND LIMITS

f#- The order for knowl~.,&eJ!l .!~-C?Jnv~rs(? of t_he ~iiu_s:il. o_r.(i~r. In the
order for knowledge, what comes first is the brief subjective
experience of the astronomer looking at a pattern of black and
white, and what comes last is the nebula, vast, remote, and
belonging to the distant past.
In considering the reasons for believing in any empirical
statement, we cannot escape from perception with all its personal
limitations. How far the information which we obtain from this
tainted source can be purified in the filter of scientific method,
and emerge resplendently godlike in its impartiality, is a difficult
question, with which we shall be much concerned. But there is
one thing that is obvious from the start: only in so far as the
initial perceptual datum is trustworthy can there be any reason
for accepting the vast cosmic edifice of inference which is based
upon it.
I am not suggesting that the initial perceptual datum must be
accepted as indubitable; that is by no means the case, There are
well-known methods of strengthening or weakening the force of
individual testimony; certain methods are used in the law courts,
somewhat different ones are used in science. But all depend upon
the principle that some weight is to be attached to every piece of
testimony, for it is only in virtue of this principle that a number
of concordant testimonies are held to give a high probability.
Individual percepts are the basis of all our knowledge, and no
method exists by which we can begin with data which are public
to many observers.