It's like when you know stuff...but like...it turns out you don't...whatever.

A few days prior to the start of the school year, I decided to drive over to Staples and buy school supplies. My dad accompanied me because he also needed office supplies at Staples. We split up and as I finished putting all of my supplies in the shopping cart, I spotted my dad near the printer section. I ran over to him and tapped him on his shoulder. Much to my surprise, however, the man who turned around was not my father. I mumbled an apology and walked away in embarrassment.

The ways of knowing in this situation include sense perception, reason, and emotion. My sense of vision caused me to believe that a complete stranger was actually my father. The rods and cones in my retina matched up the stranger's appearance with the familiarity of my father's appearance, and this observation deceived me into believing that they were both the same person. Deductive reasoning was also used in the thinking process. My dad has black hair, was wearing khakis, and a plain T-shirt. The stranger had black hair, was wearing khakis, and a plain T-shirt. From these observations, I reasoned that they were the same person. Additionally, emotions played a part in the situation. An emotional person is unlikely to see clearly or to reason well, and in most cases, emotions are not a reliable guide to the truth. I felt happy to see my dad and I wasn't paying much attention to details. This outburst of emotion caused me to overlook the minutiae and run over to someone who I didn't know.

The knowledge "problem", or the big deal, is that I mistook my father for a complete stranger. I deceived myself into believing that a stranger was actually the same person as my father.

So what are the limitations on the act of observation, and what effects do such limitations have on the consequent decisions we make?