Hypothesis Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Uses== In its ancient usage, ''[[Hypothesis (drama)|hypothesis]]'' referred to a summary of the [[Plot (narrative)|plot]] of a [[Theatre of ancient Greece|classical drama]]. The English word ''hypothesis'' comes from the [[ancient Greek]] word [[wikt:ὑπόθεσις|ὑπόθεσις]] {{lang|hrc|hypothesis}} whose literal or etymological sense is "putting or placing under" and hence in extended use has many other meanings including "supposition".<ref name="HilbornMangel1997">{{cite book |last1=Hilborn |first1=Ray |last2=Mangel |first2=Marc |title=The ecological detective: confronting models with data |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=katmvQDi8PMC&pg=PA24 |access-date=22 August 2011 |year=1997 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-03497-3 |page=24}}</ref><ref>''[[wikt:supposition|Supposition]]'' is itself a Latinate analogue of ''hypothesis'' as both are compound words constructed from words meaning respectively "under, below" and "place, placing, putting" in either language, Latin or Greek.</ref><ref>{{OEtymD|hypothesis}}</ref><ref>{{LSJ|u(po/qesis|ὑπόθεσις|ref}}.</ref> In [[Plato]]'s ''[[Meno]]'' (86e–87b), [[Socrates]] dissects [[virtue]] with a method used by mathematicians,<ref> [[Wilbur Knorr|Wilbur R. Knorr]], "Construction as existence proof in ancient geometry", p. 125, as selected by Jean Christianidis (ed.), ''Classics in the history of Greek mathematics'', Kluwer.</ref> that of "investigating from a hypothesis".<ref> [[Gregory Vlastos]], Myles Burnyeat (1994) ''Socratic studies'', Cambridge {{ISBN|0-521-44735-6}}, p. 1 </ref> In this sense, 'hypothesis' refers to a clever idea or to a convenient mathematical approach that simplifies cumbersome [[calculation]]s.<ref>"Neutral hypotheses, those of which the subject matter can never be directly proved or disproved, are very numerous in all sciences." — [[Morris Raphael Cohen|Morris Cohen]] and [[Ernest Nagel]] (1934) ''An introduction to logic and scientific method'' p. 375. New York: Harcourt, Brace, and Company.</ref> [[Robert Bellarmine|Cardinal Bellarmine]] gave a famous example of this usage in the warning issued to [[Galileo Galilei|Galileo]] in the early 17th century: that he must not treat the motion of the Earth as a reality, but merely as a hypothesis.<ref>"Bellarmine (Ital. ''Bellarmino''), Roberto Francesco Romolo", ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', Eleventh Edition.: 'Bellarmine did not proscribe the Copernican system ... all he claimed was that it should be presented as a hypothesis until it should receive scientific demonstration.' {{EB1911|wstitle=Hypothesis|volume=14|page=208}}</ref> In common usage in the 21st century, a ''hypothesis'' refers to a provisional idea whose merit requires evaluation. For proper evaluation, the framer of a hypothesis needs to define specifics in operational terms. A hypothesis requires more work by the researcher in order to either confirm or disprove it. In due course, a confirmed hypothesis may become part of a theory or occasionally may grow to become a theory itself. Normally, scientific hypotheses have the form of a [[mathematical model]].<ref>Crease, Robert P. (2008) ''The Great Equations'' {{ISBN|978-0-393-06204-5}}, p.112 lists the [[conservation of energy]] as an example of accounting a [[constant of motion]]. Hypothesized by [[Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot|Sadi Carnot]], truth demonstrated by [[James Prescott Joule]], proven by [[Emmy Noether]].</ref> Sometimes, but not always, one can also formulate them as [[existential quantification|existential statements]], stating that some particular instance of the phenomenon under examination has some characteristic and causal explanations, which have the general form of [[Universal quantification|universal statements]], stating that every instance of the phenomenon has a particular characteristic. In entrepreneurial setting, a hypothesis is used to formulate provisional ideas about the attributes of products or business models. The formulated hypothesis is then evaluated, where the hypothesis is proven to be either "true" or "false" through a [[Authentication|verifiability]]- or [[falsifiability]]-oriented [[experiment]].<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-the-lean-start-up-changes-everything |title=Harvard Business Review (2013) "Why Lean Startup Changes Everything" |journal=Harvard Business Review |date=May 2013 |access-date=2015-07-16 |archive-date=2021-10-28 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211028155310/https://hbr.org/2013/05/why-the-lean-start-up-changes-everything |url-status=live |last1=Blank |first1=Steve }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://leanstartup.pbworks.com/w/page/65946049/Intro%20to%20Lean%20Startup |title=Lean Startup Circle "What is Lean Startup?" |access-date=2015-07-16 |archive-date=2015-07-16 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150716103239/http://leanstartup.pbworks.com/w/page/65946049/Intro%20to%20Lean%20Startup |url-status=live }}</ref> Any useful hypothesis will enable [[prediction]]s by [[reasoning]] (including [[deductive reasoning]]). It might predict the outcome of an [[experiment]] in a [[laboratory]] setting or the observation of a phenomenon in [[nature]]. The prediction may also invoke statistics and only talk about probabilities. [[Karl Popper]], following others, has argued that a hypothesis must be [[Falsifiability|falsifiable]], and that one cannot regard a proposition or theory as scientific if it does not admit the possibility of being shown to be false. Other philosophers of science have rejected the criterion of falsifiability or supplemented it with other criteria, such as verifiability (e.g., [[verificationism]]) or coherence (e.g., [[confirmation holism]]). The [[scientific method]] involves experimentation to test the ability of some hypothesis to adequately answer the question under investigation. In contrast, unfettered observation is not as likely to raise unexplained issues or open questions in science, as would the formulation of a [[crucial experiment]] to test the hypothesis. A [[thought experiment]] might also be used to test the hypothesis. In framing a hypothesis, the investigator must not currently know the outcome of a test or that it remains reasonably under continuing investigation. Only in such cases does the experiment, test or study potentially increase the probability of showing the truth of a hypothesis.<ref name="Popper1959">{{harvnb|Popper|1959}}</ref>{{rp|pp17,49–50}} If the researcher already knows the outcome, it counts as a "consequence" — and the researcher should have already considered this while formulating the hypothesis. If one cannot assess the predictions by observation or by [[experience]], the hypothesis needs to be tested by others providing observations. For example, a new technology or theory might make the necessary experiments feasible. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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