  What are we to make of this sort of argument? One might suggest that the fact that our cognitive apparatus is a product of natural selection supports, rather than undermines, the idea that it is a reliable guide to the way the world is. For, being mistaken about how things stand in one’s environment is surely an impediment, not an aid, to survival. Vaihinger would likely respond that this only shows that we have to get the right things about the world right. It does not mean that our total image of the world is, or even could be, a copy of reality, accurate in all its details. Vaihinger’s view is that the picture of the world that is easiest to work with will depart from reality in certain crucial respects.