ABSTRACT
This chapter contains a definition of the term “hypothesis,” a discussion of the qualities of a good hypothesis, and the different kinds of hypotheses and the way to use them. The concepts covered here include analysis with a hypothesis or without a hypothesis (with only description objectives), a priori and a posteriori hypotheses, and the main qualities of a good hypothesis (plausibility, verifiability, precision, novelty). Some analytical texts focus on the validation, refutation, or selection of a global hypothesis (e.g., “I will show that Hamlet is really mad,” or, “Is Hamlet’s madness real? I will attempt to answer this question”). Other analytical texts do not have an aim centered on a principal hypothesis, but rather aim to provide a description of a given phenomenon (e.g., the themes in Hamlet, madness in Hamlet, the oppositions in Shakespeare’s sonnets). To be fully satisfactory, an analysis with a global hypothesis must present a hypothesis that validates, clarifies, completes, or refutes current knowledge. A hypothesis must be verifiable, precise, and novel. It does not necessarily have to be plausible on first impression, and indeed it may be counter-intuitive; if it is implausible and yet it is correctly validated, the analysis will have the virtue of producing surprising new knowledge.
