Science and Hypothesis

RECENT speculations in mathematical physics, and acquiescence in treatment in terms of unimaginable abstractions, have raised a general question about the use of hypothesis as a means of coordinating observations, stimulating experiment, and paving the way for a theory. It is possible to experiment not only in the laboratory with matter, but in the study also, with symbols; and a great deal of modern mathematics is of an experimental character. A hypothesis is boldly made, some indication of its plausibility having been detected by a flash of genius; it is then developed and its consequences worked out. If the consequences are evidently leading astray, it is abandoned; but if like Planck's, like de Broglie's, and like Bohr's—to go no further—they lead in a helpful direction, yielding results that can be compared with metrical determinations, then the hypothetical formula attracts attention and begins to be accepted as the basis of a partial theory, even though its full significance is not understood, the reasons for it only dimly apprehended, and though the agencies with their mode of working are in the main unknown.