Common sense: a feature of cultures of science

Bauer, Martin W ORCID: 0000-0002-0800-8133 (2025) Common sense: a feature of cultures of science. Cultures of Science, 8 (2). 87 - 94. ISSN 2096-6083

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Abstract

The English edition of China Daily on 13 September 2017 had a story (page 12) sponsored by the State Forestry Administration, which ran a campaign against desertification: The Songhe villager, Shi Shuzhu (with photo) of Minqin County, Gansu Province, describes the collective effort to build a 9-kilometre long ‘green wall’ to keep the desert out, declaring that ‘respecting science and technology for its useful new methods is something I have learned from long periods of struggling with sandstorms’. Whether this is an authentic citation or not, the story is about respect for the authority of science because it is solving an existential problem in the Songhe village. This respect is not granted for the beauty and elegance of mathematical models provided, for the Greater Glory of God (ad maiorem Dei gloriam, as it was known in Latin), for the Honour of Allah, the prosperity or greatness of the nation, or the productivity of researchers in delivering high-quality research papers. The sole basis of respect for science is the capacity of science to solve existential everyday problems. This utility is not a scientific criterion. The ‘green wall’ does not care about its utility; utility is at most one of many expectations brought into consideration by human common sense (CS). With this special issue of Cultures of Science, we want to stimulate research into CS as a feature of past and present cultures of science. For this purpose, it will be useful to clarify first the different aspects of CS.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author(s)
Divisions:	Psychological and Behavioural Science
Subjects:	B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Date Deposited:	29 May 2025 10:27
Last Modified:	29 May 2025 10:27
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/128202

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