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Few intellectual tyrannies can be more recalcitrant than the truths that everybody knows and nearly no one can defend with any decent data (for who needs proof of anything so obvious). And few intellectual activities can be more salutary than attempts to find out whether these rocks of ages might crumble at the slightest tap of an informational hammer.

Stephen Jay Gould#133

TruthKnowledgeBeliefSkepticism

About this quote

What does it mean?
Beliefs that everyone accepts without proof are hard to change, but testing them is vital.
In plain terms
Common beliefs are hard to change, but checking them is important.
What can you take from it?
Question widely accepted 'obvious' truths.

Where it applies

  • policy making
  • public debate
  • personal inquiry

Putting it to work

  • demand evidence
  • challenge assumptions

Questions to consider

  • What common facts are false?
  • Why do we stop asking why?

Another view

Some common knowledge is useful heuristics.

More from Stephen Jay Gould

  1. If a man dies of cancer in fear and despair, then cry for his pain and celebrate his life. The other man, who fought like hell and laughed in the end, but also…

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  2. And yet I think that the Full House model does teach us to treasure variety for its own sake-for tough reasons of evolutionary theory and nature's ontology, an…

    Permalink to quote #134
  3. We build our personalities laboriously and through many years, and we cannot order fundamental changes just because we might value their utility; no button rea…

    Permalink to quote #131

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