| Sumario: | Science seems to be, among other things, part of man's quest for legitimate extrapolations beyond immediate sense impressions. Though some sociologists seem to think that "going beyond one's data" constitutes a scholarly sort of sin, the whole purpose of a sampling apparatus is precisely to enable a person to make claims regarding parameters from statistical knowledge. Further, the development of scientific theory appears to be of the same order. Science is not a mere cataloging of either true or verifiable statements. Scientific statements cohere in an organized body of interconnected propositions. The basic scientific act is to make a judgment regarding the acceptability of these statements (Kaufman, 1944; esp 39ff). Since a variety of different kinds of statements can be identified, the grounds for acceptance vary according to their nature (Francis, 1969). Further, criteria such as "elegance" and "pragmatic workability," though creating a certain degree of tension at times, rest on different grounds than, say, establishing a probability level for Type I statistical error. In any event, the strain is toward consistency such that neither the statement itself nor the grounds for accepting it are contradicted elsewhere.
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