54 THE PATH OF SCIENCE 



them are merely convenient methods of summarizing them, 

 classifying them, and suggesting the possibility of the observa- 

 tion of further facts. Facts are the foundation of science 

 however they may be interpreted. As Faraday said: 



I cannot doubt but that he who, as a wise philosopher, 

 has most power of penetrating the secrets of nature, and 

 guessing by hypothesis . . . will also be most careful . . . 

 to distinguish that knowledge which consists of assumption, 

 by which I mean theory and hypothesis, from that which 

 is the knowledge of facts and laws, never raising the 

 former to the dignity or authority of the latter nor con- 

 fusing the latter more than is inevitable with the former.* 



The patterns into which scientific men fit the facts which 

 they have observed are generally known as hypotheses or 

 theories. In practice, a theory is an elaborate hypothesis that 

 deals with a wider range of facts than does the simple hy- 

 pothesis. In the initial stages, especially before verification, 

 what is later called a theory is often called an hypothesis. At 

 the point where an hypothesis is formed after the considera- 

 tion of the observed facts, the scientist ceases to consider only 

 the facts and proceeds to draw on his imagination. He at- 

 tempts to see some connection between the facts he has ob- 

 served, to form some pattern that he can generalize into 

 which they fit. Then he examines his generalization to see 

 whether any facts relevant to the subject and of the type 

 which he has been observing invalidate that generalization. 

 This is the very important verification of a theory; an un- 

 verified theory is merely an initial guess and is not accepted 

 as valid. Further verification is obtained by deducing from 

 the theory results leading to facts that can be tested by ob- 

 servation. If this test is met and the facts are established, 

 the theory is considered to have strong support and to be 

 a scientific theory having validity until facts are discovered 

 that are not consonant with it. Thus we see that a scientific 

 theory is formulated by the examination of a selected gioup 



* Michael Faraday, Philosophical Magazine, 24, 136 (1844). (Quoted 

 by George.) 



