CHAPTER XI 

 VERIFICATORY TECHNIQUES 



The fact that explanatory science develops not only 

 through the use of the techniques of discovery but through 

 the application of the verificatory techniques as well, unites 

 the present chapter with the preceding one in an intimate 

 way. Properly speaking, no hypothesis is truly such until 

 it has been verified. Consequently, a discussion of the 

 techniques by which hypotheses are discovered or devised is 

 insufficient. A genuine hypothesis must contain implications 

 with reference to novel data, i.e., it must be fruitful in 

 predictions. To assert this is to say, simply, that every 

 hypothesis must be such that if it were true there would 

 exist a certain specifiable state of affairs. The verificatory 

 techniques are concerned with the ascertainment of what 

 this state of affairs would be, and whether it actually exists as 

 predicted. To the extent to which the anticipations are 

 verified by the proper techniques the hypothesis takes its 

 place as an integral part of the more inclusive explanatory 

 science. Hence an established explanatory science must be 

 presumed to contain a certain number of such hypotheses, 

 once conjectural in character but now verified. 



In order to prepare the way for this discussion of verifi- 

 catory techniques, a brief resume of the essential methods 

 employed in the formation of a hypothesis may be given. 

 This will duplicate, to a certain extent, material already 

 presented in earlier chapters, but some features not yet con- 

 sidered will be introduced. The topic may be called the 

 development of a theory. 



DEVELOPMENT OF A THEORY 



A theory may be said to develop through four stages. The 

 first is the preparatory stage in which the theory is still 



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