Our world and reality are an undeniably complex of entities and relations. Together they form systems which interact with one and other. An illustration of this complexity is the butterfly effect, which refers to the hypothetical idea that if you would go back in time and change the path of one single butterfly it would create a ripple effect which could change the way realty unfolds, as every little thing is connected.

However, if we would freeze time, and take a snapshot of the universe, we would be able to observe the reality in that moment. Each molecule, object, person and movement would be part of ‘the true reality’ in that single point in time. This of course is only hypothetical, as we cannot freeze or go back in time.

We can only perceive parts of this reality, as it is ever changing as time passes along. Nature has equipped us with tools to observe and process reality. Sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell are biological systems that generate small electrical pulses in our body which are processed in our brain. The sense systems and processing have evolved over time to offer us the vital information we require to survive. As such we see moving objects better as when they stand still, because it is useful to spot a predator. It filters out information irrelevant to our survival, so that we can more effectively focus on the things that matter. On the other hand we cannot perceive a whole range of colours, just because their was no evolutionary pressure to develop it. In contrast with many insects, which perceive flowers in a whole different way, helping them to navigate to and find food. As vital and important this filter might have been for our survival, it also blinds us from the ‘true reality’.  

Imagin a man a thousand years old, he must be immensely smart and know all, right? Of course he would be well developed, and have tremendous experience, but he would not know all. As he can only observe the world with his limited sensory range in each moment of time. It is an example, to explain that each person walks a unique path on this earth, perceiving reality in each moment in time with their limited sensory range. Learning along the way from experience and examples. As we walk on this path we learn to perceive, how to process the information we receive, shaping our perception uniquely. Therefor your view on reality is different from every other being on the world.

But how then, do we know that something is true, since everyone perceives reality differently? Science here has become the solution of humanity, where we research to understand the nomothetic realities. What are our universal laws, what it true for everyone? In science field like math, physics and chemistry many phenomena can be replicated and researched from different perspectives. This allows us to have a very high level of certainty that it is true. In social sciences however it is nearly impossible to isolate and research with that level of certainty. The matter is just to complex and interwoven with itself.

We need to deal with the complexity of the world on a daily basis and are naturally pretty good at interacting with its complexity. To do so, we learn by trial and error, shaping heuristics along the way. These heuristics are shaped intuitively and are often filled with bias, a clear example of this is for instance how we accidently discriminate minorities. Even when not on purpose, it can still happen that certain…