Blinded-by-Progress Fallacy

In following clues we have to be careful with our claims. Because of the excitement of the chase, because of the surprising results clues sometimes afford, even experienced investigators will sometimes overstate. Now in an investigation when new clues appear it is an occasion for joy. But we should not say for this reason that ALL that we have done in the investigation up to that point must be correct. Such a claim is too broad: it overlooks the possibility of hidden mistakes, the kind we explained in the last post. Some old clues could have been incorrectly interpreted even though new clues appear. When new clues appear we can only say, what we have done so far in the investigation is largely correct.

I want to coin a new term here. If when new clues appear, we say ALL that we have done up to that point is correct, I shall say we have committed the blinded-by-progress fallacy. We are making progress when we manage to develop new clues from old but this progress does not entitle us to conclude that ALL that we have done in the investigation up to that point is correct.