Quotation
Last reviewed:
“I try not to think with my gut. If I'm serious about understanding the world, thinking with anything besides my brain, as tempting as that might be, is likely to get me into trouble. Really, it's okay to reserve judgment until the evidence is in.”
Carl Sagan · Thinkers beyond philosophy · Modern · 1995
What does it mean?
Gut feeling is tempting, and he thinks it is a poor instrument if you actually want to understand. Reserving judgement until the evidence is in is, he says, allowed. The usual reading ties the lines to the invisible dragon: a claim that survives only by explaining away every test is not yet a finding. A competing reading hears a ban on instinct in ordinary life, which a chapter about unfalsifiable claims is not legislating for crossing the road. The sentences are the chapter 'The Dragon in My Garage' in The Demon-Haunted World. The brain, here, means the willingness to wait for a test. The gut is the hurry.
Did Carl Sagan really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. His English in the chapter 'The Dragon in My Garage', page 180 of the Ballantine paperback. Chapter numbers differ by edition, so this card cites the title rather than a number. The gut line and the permission to reserve judgment appear earlier, in shorter form, in 'The Burden of Skepticism', Skeptical Inquirer volume 12 (Fall 1987). The sentence about thinking with the brain is the book's expansion of that passage. The chapter's dragon cannot be caught by any test, which is why reserving judgement is the moral of the page.
Where it comes from
The Demon-Haunted World (1995), chapter 'The Dragon in My Garage', p. 180 (Ballantine paperback)
Approximate date: 1995.
How to use it
A rumour in a parents' group in Bristol feels urgent, and the urgency is the temptation he names. You can say you do not know yet. The chapter thinks that sentence is permitted. It is not a delay you owe to every trivial choice. It is the delay you owe to a claim that might be a dragon.
A mindset reading
Reserve judgement is not the same as permanent suspension. When the evidence comes in, the reservation is over. The error is the early certainty, not the later conclusion.
Understand the philosophy
The chapter 'The Dragon in My Garage' is a claim built so that no observation can touch it. The key permission is to wait. Chapter 12's kit asks whether a hypothesis could, in principle, be shown false. The two chapters are one argument. This card is the patience. The kit is the tools. The shorter form of the gut line, without the sentence about the brain, is already in 'The Burden of Skepticism', Skeptical Inquirer volume 12 (Fall 1987).
- knowledge
- mind
FAQ
What does it mean?
Gut feeling is tempting, and he thinks it is a poor instrument if you actually want to understand. Reserving judgement until the evidence is in is, he says, allowed. The usual reading ties the lines to the invisible dragon: a claim that survives only by explaining away every test is not yet a finding. A competing reading hears a ban on instinct in ordinary life, which a chapter about unfalsifiable claims is not legislating for crossing the road. The sentences are the chapter 'The Dragon in My Garage' in The Demon-Haunted World. The brain, here, means the willingness to wait for a test. The gut is the hurry.
Did Carl Sagan really say this?
Well attested. His English in the chapter 'The Dragon in My Garage', page 180 of the Ballantine paperback. Chapter numbers differ by edition, so this card cites the title rather than a number. The gut line and the permission to reserve judgment appear earlier, in shorter form, in 'The Burden of Skepticism', Skeptical Inquirer volume 12 (Fall 1987). The sentence about thinking with the brain is the book's expansion of that passage. The chapter's dragon cannot be caught by any test, which is why reserving judgement is the moral of the page.
Which work is it in?
The Demon-Haunted World (1995), chapter 'The Dragon in My Garage', p. 180 (Ballantine paperback) Approximate date: 1995.