CREATIVE SCIENCE 329 



essential. The rebirth of the hehocentric system is, after all, the work 

 of Copernicus— no# of any Osiander who, with a reserve no positivist 

 could fail to applaud, said of that system: 



I have always felt about hypotheses that they are not articles of faith 

 but the basis of computation; so that even if they are false it does not 

 matter, provided that they reproduce exactly the phenomena of the 

 motions. 



DETACHMENT 



Moved to action by commitment to our ideas, we can learn better 

 ideas only as we bring some detachment to the scrutiny of the re- 

 sults of that action. The virtues of open-mindedness have been much 

 extolled and, as Bernard emphasizes, they are not to be scorned. 



Men who have excessive faith in their theories or ideas are not 

 only ill prepared for making discoveries; they also make very poor 

 observations. 



On the basis of careful study of Mendel's report of his observations, 

 Fisher concludes that Mendel must not infrequently have deceived 

 himself, precisely as Bernard suggests. We may well deplore such 

 self-deception, but we cannot simultaneously honor the work and 

 condemn the faith that alone evoked and sustained it. What we must 

 seek is some balance of commitment by detachment. 



The institutional structure of science powerfully contributes to the 

 attainment of such a balance: to some extent it even makes that at- 

 tainment unnecessary, by opening the possibility of co-operative dis- 

 covery. The New World that Columbus could not recognize is recog- 

 nized by companions who more accurately read the "face value" of 

 the evidence. Thus, in the scientific context, Hahn and Strassman do 

 not themselves discover nuclear fission, but report the results of 

 which they say: 



As "nuclear chemists" having many close associations with physics, 

 we cannot yet bring ourselves to make this leap in contradiction of all 

 previous experience in nuclear physics. A series of strange accidents 

 may, after all, have rendered our results deceptive. 



Meitner and Frisch then go on fully to discover what Hahn and 

 Strassman's reluctance to contradict nuclear theory kept them from 

 recognizing. 



