STRATEGY 



I confess that I did not read Bacon until after I had nearly 

 finished writing this book and only then did I realise how clearly 

 he had seen that discovery is more often than not empirical — the 

 same view as I have reached from studying the methods which 

 have produced results during recent times. He quotes with 

 approval Celsus as saying : 



" That medicines and cures were first found out, and then after 

 the reasons and causes were discoursed; and not the causes first 

 found out, and by light from them the medicines and cures 

 discovered."^ 



No more apt commentary could be made about the advances in 

 chemotherapy of this century than this remark of Celsus' about 

 the medical science of 1800 years ago. When one reflects that 

 chance and empiricism is the method by which organic evolution 

 developed, it is perhaps not so surprising that these factors play 

 such an important part in biological research. 



In research we often have to use our techniques at their extreme 

 limit and even beyond — like Schaudinn discovering the pale 

 spirochaete of syphilis which others could barely see by the 

 methods then available. So also with our reasoning; for usually 

 discovery is beyond the reach of reason. 



In physics inductive logic is as inadequate as in biology. Ein- 

 stein leaves us in no doubt on this point when he says : 



" There is no inductive method which could lead to the funda- 

 mental concepts of physics. Failure to understand this fact 

 constituted the basic philosophical error of so many investigators 

 of the nineteenth century. . . . We now realise with special clarity, 

 how much in error arcy those theorists who believe that theory 

 comes inductively from experience." 



In formal education the student is implicitly, if not explicitly, 

 led to believe that reason is the main, or even the only, means by 

 which science advances. This view has been supported by the con- 

 ception of the so-called " scientific method " outlined mainly by 

 certain logicians of the last century who had little real under- 

 standing of research. In this book I have tried to show the error 

 of this outlook and have emphasised the limitations of reason 

 as an instrument in making discoveries. I have not questioned the 

 belief that reason is the best guide in known territory, though 



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