Scott on Nostr: "But no principles are ever so certain that subsequent verification of the deductions ...

"But no principles are ever so certain that subsequent verification of the deductions can be entirely dispensed with. Nor, despite the most perfect logic, are the deductions ever quite so certain as the principles. We cannot reason directly from *things*, but only from *concepts*, by which the things are replaced, and which never fit them perfectly. Assumptions have to be made at the start, and usually further assumptions as the reasoning proceeds. We cannot, in short, get rid of hypothetical elements entirely. For these reasons, we cannot safely carry our deductions too far without checking them by comparison with experience. A rational physical theory is like a cantilever bridge that we start to build at one end. However firm the rock may be from which it springs, we cannot build out too far without putting a pier down to earth."