Logical Possibility And Sensory Experiences

There are only so many strictly logical truths that can be discovered about certain issues and concepts before there is nothing left to discover about them that can be learned apart from psychological or sensory experiences.  At least the fact that the necessary truths of logic, such as what follows and does not follow from a fact or idea, apply to any particular thing can be known, and sometimes that is all that can be proven about a thing.  The truth about issues in this category might be unknowable beyond this, but not every issue falls in this category.  Some of the others can be fully illuminated by reason because they involve purely logical truths, and some involve a different nature altogether.

In some cases, logical possibility and sensory experiences can lead to the same conclusion independently of each other.  For example, a person who has very briefly seen or heard of fire can realize that it is logically possible for fire to burn a variety of materials, but they could also directly observe fire burning different materials with their own senses without ever specifically thinking of the logical possibility of the matter beforehand.  Reasoning out that such a thing is possible first could lead to sensory tests, and vice versa.  Either of these options can lead to the same awareness that specific events in the material world are at least possible.

The example of fire's ability to burn different substances is one of numerous examples that could be given of logically possible concepts for which the same epistemological relationship applies.  Many aspects of human life share the same qualities.  It is possible to reason out that men and women can be purely nonromantic friends or that different plants might need different environmental conditions with no other sensory experiences than those necessary to introduce someone to perceptions of men, women, or plants.  These are random examples, but they clearly illustrate the type of information in question.

Of course, no one can prove that their sensory perceptions accurately reflect the whole of the external world, so the only true knowledge that can be gained here is conceptual knowledge and knowledge of one's sensory perceptions themselves.  Since conceptual knowledge of reason and beyond is the foundation of sound epistemology in the first place, this does not threaten awareness of objective truth at all.  All that it means at most is that human epistemological limitations prevent specific kinds of knowledge that experience and reason would otherwise illuminate in full.