ABSTRACT
Following on from the European Enlightenment, the rise of empirical science forged a strong bond with a theory of knowledge that views reality as existing solidly out there and the task of the mind is to represent this reality as accurately as possible. Unfortunately, influences, such as emotions and personal biases, distort this mirror, and, accordingly, procedures are required (scientific methods) to remove (or polish out) distortions from the way this reality is represented (reflected) in the mind. This chapter explores the origins of the mirror-of-nature metaphor, it examines ways its assumptions have been reinforced by associative links and consolidated into scientific discourse and the way it has come to dominate academic environments and stomp out other understandings of knowledge. The types of harms examined include eugenics, constrained understandings of language and colonization.
