Philosophic basis of biomedical research. I. Scientific hypotheses

Hypotheses are central in scientific research. This has been so in all the major scientific works of our time. However, the dangers of projecting the desires of hypothesizing individual into his observations and inferences should be avoided and one should consider a hypothesis as a tentative proposition having varifiable consequences. Our present biomedical literature needs more emphasis on well conceived hypotheses. Many of these when subjected to experimentation would be proved wrong, as many have been in the past. But even these would stimulate experimental testing and eventually add to our understanding.