ABSTRACT
In all that has been said hitherto about the world of science, everything has been taken at its face value. I am not saying merely that we have taken the attitude of believing what men of science tell us, for this attitude, up to a point, is the only rational one for any man who is not a specialist on the matter in question. In saying that this attitude is rational, I do not mean that we should feel sure of the truth of what we are told, for it is generally admitted that probably in due course corrections will be found necessary. What I do mean is that the best scientific opinion of the present time has a better chance of truth, or of approximate truth, than any differing hypothesis suggested by a layman. The case is analogous to that of firing at a target. If you are a bad shot you are not likely to hit the bull’s eye, but you are nevertheless more likely to hit the bull’s eye than to hit any other equal area. So the scientist’s hypothesis, though not likely to be quite right, is more likely to be right than any variant suggested by an unscientific person. This, however, is not the point with which we are concerned in this chapter.
