Deductive and Inductive Methods in Science: A Reply

Abstract

LET me begin by removing misapprehensions. I did not, as Prof. J. B. S. Haldane suggests, attack Prof. E. A. Milne and Sir Arthur Eddington: “Milne”, “Eddington” and “Dirac” were merely symbols to facilitate reference to certain passages of literature with which alone I was concerned. Nor did I award Prof. Milne the title of traitor. My point was that the present menace was not one of the ordinary cases of treachery to a cause; it was the creation, through the aberration of some of our most gifted minds, of an atmosphere in which treachery can nourish. I have the greatest respect for Prof. Milne, but I cannot speak too disrespectfully of the cosmological principle.