To understand why we interpret phenomena as emergent, we need to know something about the interpreting apparatus, the human cognitive system. The constraints faced by cognitive evolution lead to the development of fast and frugal heuristics which are about enhancing evolutionary fitness not discovering the nature of the world. Perhaps the central aspect of humanity’s recent cognitive evolution is social learning. This, along with cognitive dispositions we share with our ancestors, forms the base for the system of distributed cognition which is the scientific project. Are there limits to this project? The question leads to the distinction between imaginative and representational understanding which will be central to the discussion of emergence.