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Method By Which the Causes of the Present and Past Conditions of Organic Nature Are to Be Discovered — the Origination of Living Beings by Thomas Henry Huxley
page 13 of 25 (52%)
hypothesis is untrustworthy simply because it is an hypothesis. It is
often urged, in respect to some scientific conclusion, that, after all,
it is only an hypothesis. But what more have we to guide us in
nine-tenths of the most important affairs of daily life than hypotheses,
and often very ill-based ones? So that in science, where the evidence
of an hypothesis is subjected to the most rigid examination, we may
rightly pursue the same course. You may have hypotheses and
hypotheses. A man may say, if he likes, that the moon is made of green
cheese: that is an hypothesis. But another man, who has devoted a
great deal of time and attention to the subject, and availed himself of
the most powerful telescopes and the results of the observations of
others, declares that in his opinion it is probably composed of
materials very similar to those of which our own earth is made up: and
that is also only an hypothesis. But I need not tell you that there is
an enormous difference in the value of the two hypotheses. That one
which is based on sound scientific knowledge is sure to have a
corresponding value; and that which is a mere hasty random guess is
likely to have but little value. Every great step in our progress in
discovering causes has been made in exactly the same way as that which I
have detailed to you. A person observing the occurrence of certain
facts and phenomena asks, naturally enough, what process, what kind of
operation known to occur in nature applied to the particular case, will
unravel and explain the mystery? Hence you have the scientific
hypothesis; and its value will be proportionate to the care and
completeness with which its basis had been tested and verified. It is
in these matters as in the commonest affairs of practical life: the
guess of the fool will be folly, while the guess of the wise man will
contain wisdom. In all cases, you see that the value of the result
depends on the patience and faithfulness with which the investigator
applies to his hypothesis every possible kind of verification.
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