How scientists reason

Scientists are human beings. They are not magicians, sorcerers, or wizards, although they have often been accused of practicing the black arts. They are seers only to the extent that they can suggest the effects that follow causes, and soothsayers in the degree they wish to hazard their reputations by prediction. Scientists as individuals possess the human frailities common to their age and stage. As a class they are better trained than the average well-informed citizen. They are specialists to a degree that colors their thinking on most subjects. Their philosophies, in practice, give them better title to the classification Homo sapiens than is deserved by most politicians, publicists, and leaders of social thinking. The spirit of science is the search for proof. Are there degrees in the scientists' certainty of truth? Can all truth be established, or do even scientists accept some truth on faith? Scientists are indeed quite willing to go beyond experiment, using logical deductions, valid assumptions, and other intellectual exercises in reaching their conclusions

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