Strictly legal reasons are adduced only for the purpose of justifying the decision to another audience. . . . Fresh arguments, brought in after the decision, may consist of the insertion of the conclusion into a technical framework. . . . The same is true with scientific theories, where theory influences observation and world view influences theory. Authors, especially of text books, do not expect their assertions to be empirically tested before being accepted. We have time and resources to make very few direct tests of truth claims, even for simple empirical ones, such as that the Eiffel Tower exists.
Values shape perceptions and the selection of data.
The selection of data may constitute an argument in itself. Testing appearances by one's sense of reality. Facts do not speak for themselves, but must be interpreted through what one believes about reality. Normally, reality is perceived through appearances that are taken as signs referring to it. Because the status of appearance is equivocal, one is forced to distinguish between those appearances that correspond with reality and those that are only illusory.