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80 To repeat a point I made earlier, modern science adopts as otherworldly ideal of how we come to know nature: through mental constructions that are more intellectually tractable than material reality, and in particular amenable to mathematical representation.

According to Kant, a priori knowledge is transcendental, or based on the form of all possible experience, while a posteriori knowledge is empirical, based on the content of experience. Kant states, "... it is quite possible that our empirical knowledge is a compound of that which we receive through impressions, and that which the faculty of cognition supplies from itself (sensuous impressions giving merely the occasion)."

The ordering of reality. Creating a picture of systems.

First off, what is the difference between a theoretical picture of the world and a tacit understanding of the world?

Here we will discuss the difference between parts and concepts. On one hand, some people see a machine as parts, discontinuous sets of things connected together that make up a whole. While others may see the machine as a set of concepts connected in a continuous function. Most of how you may look at it depends on the function of the description. What is the purpose of the description or discourse? Is the purpose to understand parts or anatomy of the system? Is the purpose to describe the function or physiology of the system.

• Aside:

1. Which one of these produces a more accurate picture of reality?
2. anatomy: The branch of science concerned with the bodily structure of humans, animals, and other living organisms, esp. as revealed by dissection and the separation of parts.
3. physiology: The branch of biology that deals with the normal functions of living organisms and their parts.
4. ecology: The branch of biology that deals with the relations of organisms to one another and to their physical surroundings. • (also human ecology) the study of the interaction of people with their environment.

Humans build hierarchies.

Humans are built by hierarchies.

What does the hierarchy demand of us?

Is the hierarchy what we can actually point to as the system?

Writing down the problem:

1. Statement of the problem
2. Hypothesis as to the cause of the problem
3. Experiments designed to test each hypothesis
4. Predicted results of the experiments
5. Observed results of the experiments
6. Conclusions from the results of the experiments

Why is it important to take care with nature? What is at stake when we venture into new knowledge? How we formulate or phrase a problem is a significant task. How we ask the question will immediately constrain the set of problems we will use to address said problem.