{Suspension of Disbelief}[7th August 1990]

[Redbook7:200][19900807:1957]{Suspension of Disbelief}[7th August 1990]

.1957

‘The physicist and historian of science Gerald Holton … talked* about the scientist’s need to suspend the usual standards of scientific proof: when you’re working on the frontiers of knowledge, you often have to go through a period of suspension of belief in evidence to the contrary. Uncertain equipment, inadequately controlled conditions, any number of things can invalidate your data, and the scientist needs thematic assumptions – a point to aim for.’**

Ah, so that’s how it’s done.

*(on [BBC] Radio 3, ‘Other Minds’, Friday (19900806))

**Ind[ependent] 19900807:11

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