God Arises
The Method of Argument
~ 86 ~
various observations in our mind and throws
further light on known facts is, itself a fact of the
same degree and quality. Mander comments:
To say that we have discovered a fact is to
say, in other words, that we have discovered
its meaningfulness. Or to put it another way,
we explain a thing by knowing the cause of its
existence and its conditions. Most of our
beliefs are of this nature. In fact they are
statements of observation (p.53).
Mander then broaches the problem of
observed facts.
When we speak of an observation, therefore,
we always mean something more than pure
sense perception. It is sense perception plus
recognition and some degree of interpretation
(p.56).
As John Stuart Mill says: ‘We may fancy that we see
or hear what in reality we only infer. For instance
there is nothing of which we feel more directly
conscious than the fact of the distance of an object
from us. Yet what is perceived by the eye is nothing
