The empiricist was not surprised when the zap from the metal doorknob arced onto his finger after he had shuffled his feet across the carpet to touch it.
He was very much of the opinion that everything could be predicted as long as there was enough previous empirical study to support its outcome. His friends and family would listen to him drone on and on about the benefits of knowing by seeing, and nod politely as he regaled them with tales about his current and previous projects. They had ceased to listen, knowing (through repeated observation) that he would rarely, if ever, say something interesting or funny. They weren’t surprised that his static electricity experiment turned out exactly the way he had predicted it had.
What they were surprised about was that as he turned away from the door, shaking his zapped hand, he quipped: “Nothing shocks me. I’m a scientist.”
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