Our best theories are not only truer than common sense, they make more sense than common sense...
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Scientific theories surpass common sense by offering deeper coherence and understanding.
- In plain terms
- Good theories make more sense than everyday intuition.
- What can you take from it?
- Trust deep theories over gut feelings.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- When does common sense fail?
- Why do theories sometimes feel counterintuitive?
Another view
Common sense often works well for everyday tasks despite its limits.
More from David Deutsch
Surely it is more interesting to argue about what the truth is, than about what some particular thinker, however great, did or did not think.
Permalink to quote #1 The truly privileged theories are not the ones referring to any particular scale of size or complexity, nor the ones situated at any particular level of the pr…
Permalink to quote #3 The overwhelming majority of theories are rejected because they contain bad explanations, not because they fail experimental tests.
Permalink to quote #4
Related quotes
Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it.
Niels BohrNiels Bohr quote #14 'During Alfven's visit he gave a lecture at the University of Chicago, which was attended by Enrico Fermi. As Alfven described his work, Fermi nodded his head …
Hannes AlfvenHannes Alfven quote #15 Aliens invade the earth and threaten to obliterate it in a year's time unless human beings can find the Ramsey number for red five and blue five. We could mars…
Paul ErdosPaul Erdos quote #1