Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin

“ I like to think of the philosophic and speculative atmosphere as no mere gas-zone of forty-five miles' depth, as of old, but as an envelope of intense kinetic life, in the denser zone, where the logical molecules touch one another with marvelous frequency, and where there is frictional contact with the solid but rather inert lithosphere. ”

“ That which passes under the name earth-science is not all science in the strict sense of the term. Not a little consists of generalizations from incomplete data, of inferences hung on chains of uncertain logic, of interpretations not beyond question, of hypotheses not fully verified and of speculation none too substantial. A part of the mass is true science, a part is philosophy, as I would use the term, a part is speculation, and a part is yet unorganized material. ”

“ In other words, let the doctrine of determinism be put into workable form, and carried into effect in all its applications, with every step true to the primary assumptions. If this can be done successfully, we shall have a wholly new working basis for the production of science, with new criteria of science. If it can not be done and the hypothesis of determinism is unworkable, let it be cast aside like any other unworkable hypothesis. Whatever metaphysicians may think of an unworkable scheme, scientific investigators may as well send it to the junk shop. ”

“ It is rarely if ever perfectly sustained. A working hypothesis may glide with the utmost ease into a ruling theory. Affection may as easily cling about a beloved intellectual child under the name of a working hypothesis as under any other, and may become a ruling passion. The moral atmosphere associated with the working hypothesis, however, lends some good influence toward the preservation of its integrity. The author of a working hypothesis is not presumed to father or defend it, but merely to use it for what it is worth. ”

“ Whatever conforms thoroughly to the working requirements of nature probably corresponds essentially to the absolute truth, though it may be much short of the full truth. That may be accepted, for the time being, as true which duly approves itself under all tests, as though it were true. Whenever it seems to fail under test in any degree, confidence is to be withdrawn in equal degree, and a rectification of conceptions sought. This may well hold for all conceptions, however fundamental, whether they relate to the physical, the vital, or the mental phenomena which the earth presents. ”

“ As our working basis, we assume that our perceptions represent reality, when duly directed and corrected, but that error and illusion lurk on all sides and must be scrupulously avoided. We assume that we are capable of detecting error and of demonstrating truth; and that, as requisite means, we have choice, and some measure of volitional command over ourselves and over nature.
Starting thus with assumptions that embrace choice and the possibility of error, and going out into physical research, most of us have concluded that antecedents are followed rigorously by their consequents. ”

“ The method of regenerative hypotheses answers that a new set of assumptions begotten of the contradictory conclusion should be made the basis of a new inquiry, and if possible of a new working hypothesis. Instead of the usual assumption of choice, and of the possible alternative of reaching truth or falling into error, let the assumption be that all acts of the mind are parts of a rigorous chain of antecedents and consequents. ”

“ In the outer tenuous zone, the molecular flights are freer and the excursions are without assignable limits. I believe an appropriate atmosphere of philosophy is as necessary to the wholesome intellectual life of our sciences as is the earth's physical atmosphere to the life of the planet. None the less, it must ever be our endeavor to reduce speculation to philosophy, and philosophy to science. For the perpetuation of the necessary philosophic atmosphere, we may safely trust to the evolution of new problems concurrently with the solution of the old. ”

“ The mind lingers with pleasure upon the facts that fall happily into the embrace of the theory, and feels a natural indifference toward those that assume a refractory or meaningless attitude. Instinctively, there is a special searching-out of phenomena that support the theory; unwittingly also there is a pressing of the theory to make it fit the facts and a pressing of the facts to make them fit the theory. When these biasing tendencies set in, the mind soon glides into the partiality of paternalism, and the theory rapidly rises to a position of control. ”

“ That which under this prolonged ordeal shall give the highest grounds of assurance may stand to us for science, that which shall rest more upon inference than upon the firmer modes of determination may stand to us for our philosophy, while that which lies beyond these, as something doubtless always will, may stand to us for the working material of the future. ”

“ In the very nature of the case, the chief danger that springs from affection is counteracted. Where some of the hypotheses have been already proposed and used, while others are the investigator's own creation, a natural tendency to bias arises, but the right use of the method requires the impartial adoption of all into the working family. The investigator thus at the outset puts himself in cordial sympathy and in the parental relations of adoption, if not of authorship, with every hypothesis that is at all applicable to the case under investigation. ”

“ The chief effort here centers on an elucidation of phenomena, not on an exhaustive determination of the facts. Properly enough the crown of the work is the end, explanation is brought to the forefront and eagerly made the immediate end of endeavor. As soon as a phenomenon is presented, a theory of elucidation is framed. Laudable enough in itself, the theory is liable to be framed before the phenomena are fully and accurately observed. ”

“ As a geologist I venture to entertain the belief that exhaustive inquiry on such regenerative lines would bring forth results in harmony with geological evidences, with which the well-known conclusions heretofore reached seem to be at fatal variance.
The earth-sciences are not purely physical sciences. They concern themselves with life and with mentality, as well as with rocks, ocean and atmosphere. ”

“ But granting the importance of the philosophic element, we doubtless agree without hesitation that the solid products of accurate and complete observation, natural or experimental, are the bed-rock of our group of sciences. ”

“ It is as foolish to cultivate sterile soil in science as in agriculture, and preliminary tests may show that given soils are necessarily sterile. In many cases, all the needs of the problem may be met by a multiple series of assumptions covering the full range of a probable fact. In most cases it is easy to see that the value of a given fundamental factor can not range beyond certain extremes on either hand. If a series of values ranging from the one extreme to the other be used simultaneously in the inquiry, the full range of results dependent on this factor may be covered. ”

“ However tensely he may strain his observing powers to see what is to be seen, he seeks solely a record of facts uncolored by preferences or prejudices. To this end, he restrains himself from theoretical indulgence, and modestly contents himself with being a recorder of nature. He does not presume to be its interpreter and prophet. At length, in the office, he gathers his observations into an assemblage, with such inferences and interpretations as flow from them spontaneously, but even then he guards himself against the prejudices of theoretical indulgence. ”

“ Let us entirely abandon the historic effort of the metaphysicians to build an inverted pyramid on an apex of axioms assumed to be incontestable truth, and let us rear our superstructure on the results of working trials applied as widely and as severely as possible. ”

“ These new assumptions are the more imperative, because they are supported by inquiries based on quite independent lines. In framing the new hypothesis an advance in detail and in organization is to be sought on the evolutionary principle already indicated. If the earth as a whole is as rigid as steel, and the outer part is, as we know, formed of rock much less rigid than steel, the interior must be much more rigid than steel and there must be a differential distribution of rigidity. The new inquiry may then well start with the assumption of increasing rigidity toward the center. ”

“ In the classic investigations of George Darwin on tides and their astronomic consequences, a viscous earth is assumed as the starting-point, with properties such that the tidal protuberance is carried forward by the rotation of the earth to the point which gives the maximum effect on the motions of the earth and moon. These assumptions run potentially through the whole train of brilliant mathematical deduction. At the end of the inquiry, or if not of this particular inquiry, at least of collateral inquiries, the conclusion is reached that the earth is a rigid body comparable to steel. ”

“ Unconsciously the facts to which it gives no meaning become less impressive and fall into neglect. Selective observation creeps insidiously in and becomes a persistent habit. Soon also affection is awakened with its blinding influence. The authorship of an original explanation that seems successful easily begets fondness for one's intellectual child. ”

“ No one who goes into the field with a mind merely receptive, or merely alert to see what presents itself, however nerved to a high effort, will return laden with all that might be seen. Only a part of the elements and aspects of complex phenomena present themselves at once to even the best observational minds. ”

“ The elucidation is likely to embrace only the more obtrusive phenomena, not the full complement of the obtrusive and the unimpressive. The field is quite likely to present many repetitions of the leading phenomena and a theory framed to fit those that first arrest attention naturally fits the oft-recurrent phenomena of the same class. While there may be really no new evidence, nor any real test, nor any further inquiry into the grounds of the theory, its repeated application with seeming success leads insidiously to the delusion that it has been strengthened by additional investigation. ”

“ The reaction of one hypothesis upon another leads to a fuller and sharper recognition of the scope of each. Every added hypothesis is quite sure to call forth into clear recognition neglected aspects of the phenomena. ”

“ They should give us ultimately a complete working system of thought relative to all the earth is or holds. In some sense the earth sciences must come to comprehend the essentials of all the sciences. At least as much as any other scientists we are interested in the fundamental assumptions of all the sciences and in their consistent application. ”

“ Once these suggestions have arisen, the observer seeks out the phenomena that discriminate between them, and, under such stimulus, phenomena that would otherwise have wholly escaped attention at once come into view because the eye has now been focused for them. It may be affirmed with great confidence that without the active and instantaneous use of these concurrent processes the observer will rarely, if ever, record the whole of any one set of significant elements, much less the whole of all sets. ”

“ Some of the most significant elements are liable to be unimpressive. These unobtrusive but yet vital elements will certainly escape observation unless it is forced to seek them out, and to seek them out diligently, acutely and intensely. ”

“ These hypotheses should be constantly revised, extended and elaborated by all available means, and should be tested continually by every new relation which comes into view, until the crucial trials shall become as the sands of the sea for multitude and their severity shall have no bounds but the limits of human capacity. ”

“ Having thus neutralized, so far as may be, the partialities of his emotional nature, he proceeds with a certain natural and enforced erectness of mental attitude to the inquiry, knowing well that some of the family of hypotheses must needs perish in the ordeal of crucial research, but with a reasonable expectation that more than one of them may survive, since it often proves in the end that several agencies were conjoined in the production of the phenomenon. Honors must often be divided between hypotheses. ”

“ In other cases, it will be shown that a very slight change in the value of the basal factor will wholly change the outcome, and hence that extremely accurate determinations must be made before any trustworthy solution can be reached. ”