36 sciExcE (and common sense) 



we accept as data will always be precisely those deviations from 

 perfect continuity we find striking enough to excite our interest but 

 not extreme enough to discourage our endeavor to find continuity, 

 even identity. 



CONCURRENCE 



I ha\'e spoken of the concurrence of the reports of diflFerent observers 

 of the same event or thing. Plainly I assume— we all assume— that 

 diflFerent observers tcill see and report the same thing. To any "thing" 

 not so reported or reportable we are quite bold enough to deny 

 status as "fact." W'hether as men of common sense or as scientists, 

 we are prepared to deal only with those parts of our experience in 

 which we find a consensus of agreement with our fellows: overt ex- 

 perience, public experience. "Objective facts?" Again no— they de- 

 pend on human sensitivity and human judgment. But— independent 

 of the sensitivity of any one human— they are the impersonal facts 

 best suited to be subject matter of endeavors seeking knowledge of 

 the "real world" common to all. This much was appreciated very 

 early. Schrodinger quotes the "dark" Heraclitus of Ephesus to the 

 eflFect: 



It is therefore necessary to follow the common. But while reason is 

 common, the majority live as though they had a private insight of 

 their own. 



Those who speak with a sound mind must hold fast to what is com- 

 mon to all, . . . 



The waking have one common world, but the sleeping turn aside 

 each into a world of his own. 



Taking this "in the epistemological sense," Schrodinger himself 

 writes : 



Heraclitus is well aware that, actually, there is no diflFerence bet^veen 

 the sense perceptions in dreams and in waking. The only criterion of 

 reality is being common to all. This is the basis upon which we con- 

 struct a real world around us. All spheres of consciousness partially 

 overlap— not quite literally, that is impossible, but by means of physi- 

 cal reactions and communications, which we have learned to under- 

 stand in each other. The overlapping part of the spheres of conscious- 

 ness forms the world that is common to all. 



However clear in principle, the criterion of concurrence involves 

 serious uncertainties in application. For certification of an observa- 



