Religion and Science
1. The Method of Argument
~ 24 ~
There is no question of all established scientific
concepts having been the result of, or having been
confirmed by observation and experiment. Certain
theories have been developed on the basis of a
purely external approach. Here what links theory
and observation is actually inference. When a
scientist says, ‘Electricity means a flow of electrons,
he does not mean that he has seen electrons flowing
along an electric wire by means of a microscope. All
he is actually doing is explaining an observed chain
of events, which entails turning on the switch that
makes the bulbs light up, the fans rotate and the
factories start functioning. Thus, what has come
within his experience is simply an external
phenomenon, and is not by any means the inferred
event. In this respect, all scientific concepts are
inferences arrived at by applying the fourth method
of reasoning.
The only difference, it would appear, between the
third and fourth criteria, or methods of reasoning, is
that according to the third, experiment or
observation is directly related to hypothesis, while
in the case of the fourth, there is no direct relation
between hypothesis and observation or experiment.
