Observation v Inference

Observation and inference are two terms that are closely associated but should not be confused as synonyms. Whereas an observation is the direct relaying of what happened, inferences are possible explanations behind those observations. Observation is the direct information we have gathered, and inferences are what we can extrapolate from those information using prior knowledge. For example, if we see smoke wafting through the chimney, we can predict that someone has lit the fireplace. The smoke in the chimney is our observation. We don’t directly see the lit fireplace, so this is not our observation, merely an inference stemming from the fact that normally chimney smoke results from a fire.