"One finds in this subject a kind of demonstration which does not carry with it so high a degree of certainty as that employed in geometry; and which differs distinctly from the method employed by geometers in that they prove their propositions by well-established and incontrovertible principles, while here principles are tested by inferences which are derivable from them. The nature of the subject permits of no other treatment. It is possible, however, in this way to establish a probability which is little short of certainty. This is the case when the consequences of the assumed principles are in perfect accord with the observed phenomena, and especially when these verifications are numerous; but above all when one employs the hypothesis to predict new phenomena and finds his expectations realized."
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Astronomers from the NetherlandsPhysicists from the NetherlandsMathematicians from the NetherlandsPeople from The Hague
Original Language: English
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Sources
Treatise on Light (1690) - preface, Translated by Michael R. Matthews, Scientific Background to Modern Philosophy. 1989. p. 126
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christiaan_Huygens
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Christiaan Huygens
1629 – 1695
niederländischer Astronom, Mathematiker und Physiker
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