ABSTRACT
Sagan, Carl Someone has to propose ideas at the boundaries of the plausible, in order to so annoy the experimentalists or observationalists that they’ll be motivated to disprove the idea.
Toulmin, Stephen Goodfield, June New ideas are the tools of science, not its end-product. They do not guarantee deeper understanding, yet our grasp of Nature will be extended only if we are prepared to welcome them and give them a hearing. If at the outset exaggerated claims are made on their behalf, this need not matter. Enthusiasm and deep conviction are necessary if men are to explore all possibilities of any new idea, and later experience can be relied on either to confirm or to moderate the initial claims-for science flourishes on a double programme of speculative liberty and unsparing criticism.
