21 JAN 2014 by ideonexus
Common Sense Does Not Predict
Common sense ... has the very curious property of being more correct retrospectively than prospectively. It seems to me that one of the principal criteria to be applied to successful science is that its results are almost always obvious retrospectively; unfortunately, they seldom are prospectively. Common sense provides a kind of ultimate validation after science has completed its work; it seldom anticipates what science is going to discover.Science predicts, common sense comes along afterwards.
29 AUG 2011 by ideonexus
Common Sense Doesn't Work With Science
Common sense … has the very curious property of being more correct retrospectively than prospectively. It seems to me that one of the principal criteria to be applied to successful science is that its results are almost always obvious retrospectively; unfortunately, they seldom are prospectively. Common sense provides a kind of ultimate validation after science has completed its work; it seldom anticipates what science is going to discover.Russell Lincoln Ackoff quote about how common sense makes no predictions and relies on hindsight for validity, while it rarely predicts what science will discover.