What Really Makes Science Grow

We Have Become Makers Of Our Fate When We Have Ceased To Pose As Its Prophets.

It Is Clear That Everybody Interested In Science Must Be Interested In World 3 Objects. A Physical Scientist, To Start With, May Be Interested Mainly In World 1 Objects--say Crystals And X-rays. But Very Soon He Must Realize How Much Depends On Our Interpretation Of The Facts, That Is, On Our Theories, And So On World 3 Objects. Similarly, A Historian Of Science, Or A Philosopher Interested In Science Must Be Largely A Student Of World 3 Objects.

Is The World Ruled By Strict Laws Or Not? This Question I Regard As Metaphysical. The Laws We Find Are Always Hypotheses; Which Means That They May Always Be Superseded, And That They May Possibly Be Deduced From Probability Estimates. Yet Denying Causality Would Be The Same As Attempting To Persuade The Theorist To Give Up His Search; And That Such An Attempt Cannot Be Backed By Anything Like A Proof.

Piecemeal Social Engineering Resembles Physical Engineering In Regarding The Ends As Beyond The Province Of Technology.

It Is The Rule Which Says That The Other Rules Of Scientific Procedure Must Be Designed In Such A Way That They Do Not Protect Any Statement In Science Against Falsification.