The theory of evolution may illustrate this fourth use; while the history of the discovery of Neptune illustrates the third.
11. CHARACTERISTICS NEEDED BY SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATORS.
The hypothesis is referred to “as the great instrument of science.” The greatest thinkers of time have possessed the courage and the conscience to step from the known to the unknown; to hazard a guess as to the meaning of what they saw, and then subject their guess to a rigorous test. This procedure involves three elements on the part of the investigator: (1) Power of accurate observation. (2) Constructive imagination. (3) A passion for truth.
(1) An hypothesis formed without an accurate knowledge of facts is not only useless, but often it may work positive harm. To advance serviceable suppositions which are not grounded on fact, is as impossible, as it is to build a house without a foundation. The hypothesis is an image of the constructive imagination, but the pedestal of this image must rest on the ground of fact. The investigator who would be scientific must exercise scrupulous care in securing his facts through observation and experiment. The rules and errors involved in such a procedure have received sufficient attention.
(2) After the investigator has his facts to build upon; and these may be few or many—sometimes even a single fact is sufficient—then may he theorize as to a possible explanation of them. Here is where the real work of the born genius tells. To some the facts are nothing but words, to others they mean universal laws and great inventions. Who but a Newton could have seen the law of gravitation in the falling apple? Whobut an Edison could have seen the phonograph in the sound wave and wax? It must be recognized that this remarkable imaginative insight is inborn in some cases; and yet this does not preclude the necessity for cultivating this power, though it may be only in a rudimentary state. Here is another opportunity for the school teacher; namely, to train in every legitimate way the constructive imagination.
(3) Having once constructed the hypothesis, the honest scientific investigator at once proceeds to subject it to a series of most rigorous tests. It is well to see big things in a little fact; to have a mind as fertile in new ideas as a watered garden—this is genius! But is it not more incumbent to have a conscience so keen, that nothing will be allowed to pass for truth which has not received ample verification? Intellectual dishonesty is quite as common as moral dishonesty. Moreover, one must maintain an open mind, absolute candor, and a willingness to abandon the most cherished theory. Often it is much easier to explain away contradictory facts than it is to forsake a pet theory.
12. OUTLINE.
THE AUXILIARY ELEMENTS IN INDUCTION—OBSERVATION—EXPERIMENT—HYPOTHESIS.
(1) The Foundation of Inductive Generalizations.
(2) Observation. Defined.