The 20th Century and the Ruptures Between Scientific Reality and Common Sense

Abstract

The application of the practices and techniques of medieval inquisition to the study of the natural world made possible a new understanding of several phenomena, a detailed and careful analysis that has brought along vigilance, the challenging of all opinions, all actions. In time, local rationalism developed and improved, eager for quantification through techniques and instruments ever more sophisticated. The selective analysis, disciplined and increasingly attentive to details, caused the universe of common sense to be surpassed at several moments, although initially this was barely noticed. Science was seen as merely adding new extensions to the universe of common sense, from micro to macrocosm. In the beginning of the 20th century, however, this interpretation crumbled. Ruptures between the scientific reality and common sense suddenly became immense. The progressive decomposition of reality in simple phenomena, isolated from any idealized noise or causal element, led to the construction of a totally new world . no longer an extension of the senses, but new senses, impossible to understand without a complete immersion in the tradition that originated them. Customary words and actions mask huge discontinuities, present in actions sometimes as simple as talking on the phone or watching TV. In each of these daily activities there is something that cannot be apprehended by the common sense. One can easily deal with this world, make it become routine, but never understand its theoretical foundations. And these foundations are complex, spawned from precise methodologies and experimentation, and are commonly expressed in mathematical language. Reductions and simplifications to adapt them to the common language usually give rise to noise and an unfounded feeling of understanding.

Key words: Bachelard, Medieval legal inquiry, Experimentation, Rationalism, Surveillance.