CHAPTER I 



Common Sense (and Science) 



ciENCE is a way of looking at 

 the world. There are, of course, other ways. The man of common 

 sense sees the world in his own way. So does the artist, the philoso- 

 pher, the theologian. The view of the scientist, if at all unique, is 

 characterized by its heavy involvement of elements drawn from all 

 the others. Like the man of common sense, the scientist views the 

 world within the co-ordinate system provided by a framework of con- 

 cepts. But, not content with the common-sense view of the world, the 

 scientist uses a diflFerent conceptual framework. He seeks a higher 

 unity, a deeper understanding, unknown to common sense. He de- 

 vises new concepts; with them he seeks and finds novel and pro- 

 found connections between apparently unrelated phenomena, as well 

 as significant differences between phenomena apparently closely re- 

 lated. With the artist, then, he comes to see the world in new per- 

 spectives, with a new pattern of highlights and shadows, involving 

 new associations, new points of emphasis— and often effective neglect 

 of precisely those relations or connections that loom most prom- 

 inently in the view of common sense. William James writes: 



What we say about reality thus depends on the perspective into 

 which we throw it. . . . 



... By our inclusions and omissions we trace the field's extent; by 

 our emphasis we mark its foreground and its background; by our order 

 we read it in this direction or in that. We receive in short the block of 

 marble, but we carve the statue ourselves. 



