A key branch of philosophy is epistemology, or 'theory of knowledge'. Put simply, this is the study of how we comprehend the world outside our own heads. The basic premise is that if you understand the human machine, you understand better the results it produces; in the same way as understanding cameras helps you take better pictures.

resentative realism is the technical name for the generally accepted theory of how we gain understanding of the outside world.

The theory states that we don't see the world directly, but it is rather filtered by our senses and the interpretations we make of that data. This can be seen when you consider how two people don't see the world exactly alike. For example, imagine a wine expert and a novice tasting the same wine. The wine expert will experience a great number of sensations and understand things about the wine's history, age, method of manufacture, where it was made, etc, etc, whereas the novice will not. The wine is the same, therefore the difference must be something in the person.

This diagram summarises this simple theory:

Right to left, stuff exists in the world, it causes reactions in our senses, which present an interpretation of this data to the mind (i.e. you).

So you still see what goes on in the outside world, but you just see a version of it, like wearing glasses.

This simple theory has a number of wide-ranging consequences and underpins many other concepts:

• You are your history: Your history (i.e. previous life experience) shapes how you see the world because it alters your interpretation of sense data
• Stuff happens - you interpret it: Things in the world outside you just happen, it is you that attaches interpretation and meaning into these events
• New view of communication: Rather than assuming a send / receive model of communication, you could take into account that all parties have this layer of interpretation between themselves and the actual words being said.

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