Evidence; The Basis of Knowledge

There are fundamentally two types of evidential situations: (1) situations in which data is used to formulate novel hypotheses and which constitute the basis for the articulation of new theories, and (2) situations in which data is used to justify the acceptance of a hypothesis or theory. These two types fall on either side of a traditional philosophical distinction between the contexts of discovery and justification.70 More generally, the two types of evidential situations involve different types of reasoning. Thus, in the context of discovery, where one is trying to generate new Information, inductive or ampliative reasoning is tolerated and sometimes even sanctioned, whereas in the contexts of justification, the ideal is deductive reasoning. The goal in this second case is to establish as solid a link as possible between evidence and hypothesis.