A question gives an investigation its direction. It determines which observations will be gathered, which comparisons will be made, and which differences will be recorded as meaningful.
This is necessary. An observer cannot examine every possible relationship at once.
But the selection has consequences.
A detail that falls outside the question may remain unnoticed. It may be observed but set aside. It may be recorded accurately without being recognized as relevant.
None of these possibilities establishes that the detail matters. Nor does its absence from the investigation establish that it does not.
The observer can examine the measurements, repeat the procedure, and confirm that the results are consistent.
The work may be careful and the conclusions justified within the limits of the inquiry.
Yet those limits were present before the first measurement was taken.
A question can be good at directing attention without being complete.
Recognizing this does not require the observer to abandon the question or attempt to include everything. It requires only that the boundaries of the investigation remain distinguishable from the boundaries of what may be true.
Some details will become relevant when the question changes.
Others will remain outside it.
The observer cannot always know which is which in advance.
A question can guide attention without defining everything attention may eventually find.
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