But of course if you have personal experience of the metaphysical it stops being a presumption.....
Don't get me wrong here (I may have given the wrong impression). I like the scientific method for what it does. I am interested in many branches of science from astronomy to chemistry. But not everything can be weighed in a test tube or measured.
The 'problem' as I see it, is that most branches of learning have come to be dominated by the scientific empirical method to an extent which is to their own detriment.
Many academics feel uncomfortable with qualitative experience because it can't be subjected to empirical sciences. There's simply very few ways to number crunch or pie-chart qualitative experience in the way you can with 'facts and figures'. Academia (even outside the main sciences) tends to demand theorists back up their theories with hard data. Fine. But some things can't be gauged so easily in this way.
I have seen the result as academics produce often laughable psuedo-anthropological explanations for motivations since the obvious answer CAN'T be right, after all, it's 'just someone's opinion or feeling'!!
Charts, facts, figures, demographics.... after all, it couldn't be simply because....!