Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought: Memoirs, American Philosophical Society (Vol. 75)

Why are most scientists indifferent to scientific methodology? The answer: 'because what passes for scientific methodology is a misrepresentation of what scientists do.' This book explores what is wrong with the traditional methodology of 'inductive' reasoning; the alternative scheme of reasoning can give the scientist a certain limited but useful insight into the way he thinks. The force of scientific enquiry comes from a preconception of what might be true -- which is exposed to critical analysis, to find out whether or not the imagined world corresponds with the real one. It is essentially a dialogue between imaginative insight and critical appraisal; between the possible and the actual; between what could be true and what is in fact the case.