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chapter One 



SCIENCE, COMMON SENSE, AND 



DECENCY 



Up to the beginning of the present century one of the main goals of 

 science was to discover natural laws. This was usually accomplished by 

 making experiments under carefully controlled conditions and observing 

 the results. Most experiments when repeated under identical conditions 

 gave the same results. 



The scientist, through his own experiments or from previous knowl- 

 edge based on the work of others, usually developed some theory or 

 explanation of the results of his experiments. In the beginning this might 

 be a mere guess or hypothesis which he would proceed to test by new types 

 of experiments. If a satisfactory theory is obtained which seems in accord 

 with all the data and with other known facts, the solution or goal of the 

 investigation is considered to have been reached. 



A satisfactory theory should make possible the predictions of new 

 relationships or the forecasting of the results of new experiments under 

 different conditions. The usefulness of the theory lies just in its ability to 

 predict the results of future experiments. The extraordinary accomplish- 

 ments of the great mathematical physicists in applying Newton's Laws to 

 the motions of the heavenly bodies gave scientists of more than a century 

 ago the conviction that all natural phenomena were determined by accurate 

 relations between cause and effect. If the positions, the velocities and the 

 masses of the heavenly bodies were given it was possible to predict with 

 nearly unlimited accuracy the position of the bodies at any future time. 

 The idea of causation, or a necessary relation of cause and effect, has long 

 been embedded in the minds of men. The recognized responsibility of the 

 criminal for his acts, the belief in the value of education and thousands 

 of words in our language all show how implicitly we believe in cause and 

 effect. The teachings of classical science, that is, the science up to 1900, all 

 seem to reinforce this idea of causation for all phenomena. 



Philosophers, considering many fields other than science, were divided 

 in their opinions. Many went so far as to believe that everything was 

 absolutely fixed by the initial conditions of the universe and that free will 



