October 21st, 2026 - History of Western Science: “Is There Really a Scientific Method?”

Speaker: Fred Gregory Facilitator: Jane Brockmann A common understanding of scientific method begins with careful observation of an unexplained phenomenon, the posing of an hypothesis to account for it, making a prediction based on the hypothesis, and, depending on the outcome of testing, confirming or rejecting the hypothesis. But where do hypotheses come from and how determinative are they of the outcome? We’ll look at the role and status of hypotheses in the 18th century as natural philosophers strug-gled to get a handle on some bewildering observations.