“The functional validity of a working hypothesis is not a priori certain, because often it is initially based on intuition. However, logical deductions from such a hypothesis provide expectations (so called prognoses) as to the circumstances under which certain phenomena will appear in nature. Such a postulate or working hypothesis can then be substantiated by additional observations or by experiments especially arranged to test details. The value of the hypothesis is strengthened if the observed facts fit the expectation within the limits of permissible error.”
Source: "The Scientific Character of Geology," 1961, p. 454; As cited in: Alberta Research Council, Research Council of Alberta (1964), Bulletin - Alberta Research Council. Vol. 15-17, p. 31
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Reinout Willem van Bemmelen 4
Dutch geologist 1904–1983Related quotes
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Letter to the Wall Street Journal

“Although to penetrate into the intimate mysteries of nature and thence to learn the true causes of phenomena is not allowed to us, nevertheless it can happen that a certain fictive hypothesis may suffice for explaining many phenomena.”
Quanquam nobis in intima naturae mysteria penetrare, indeque veras caussas Phaenomenorum agnoscere neutiquam est concessum: tamen evenire potest, ut hypothesis quaedam ficta pluribus phaenomenis explicandis aeque satisfaciat, ac si vera caussa nobis esset perspecta.
§1
A conjecture about the nature of air (1780)
Source: The Role of Measurement in Economics. 1951, p. 12

Where is science going? The Universe in the light of modern physics. (1932)
Heaven and Earth (2009)

“The atomic hypothesis which had worked so splendidly in Physics breaks down in Psychics.”
"Francis Ysidro Edgeworth", p. 286; Originally published in The Economic Journal, March 1926
Ref: en.wikiquote.org - John Maynard Keynes / Quotes / Essays In Biography (1933)
Essays In Biography (1933), Francis Ysidro Edgeworth

Source: A Manual of the Steam Engine and Other Prime Movers (1859), p. 27

Handbook of Rational Pathology, 1846-1853