Rejoinder on the Principle of Simplicity

Extract

There are three points which Professor Schlesinger makes in his criticism of my discussion of the principle of simplicity.

1. (1) He holds that the principles of simplicity and verifiability may in actual use contradict each other. The simpler hypothesis will be rejected, he maintains, if it leads to unverified consequences.

2. (2) He holds that it is legitimate to add auxiliary hypotheses to one's theory, if it is desired to allow, let us say, for the creation of the universe by a deity, or to exclude the possibility for all time of such events as a pail of water freezing on fire.

3. (3) He maintains with Bridgman that the cosmogonists' use of the simple notion that the same laws of nature hold throughout space-time leads to “perfectly hair-raising extrapolations” which a verificationist will reject.