A critique of the hypothesis, and a defense of the question, as a framework for experimentation

Scientists are often steered by common convention, funding agencies, and journal guidelines into a hypothesis-driven experimental framework, despite Isaac Newton’s dictum that hypotheses have no place in experimental science. Some may think that New-ton’s cautionary note, which was in keeping with an experimental approach espoused by Francis Bacon, is inapplicable to current experimental method since, in accord with the philosopher Karl Popper, modern-day hypotheses are framed to serve as instruments of falsi-fication, as opposed to verification. But Popper’s “crit-ical rationalist ” framework too is problematic. It has been accused of being: inconsistent on philosophical grounds; unworkable for modern “large science, ” such as systems biology; inconsistent with the actual goals of experimental science, which is verification and not falsification; and harmful to the process of discovery as a practical matter. A criticism of the hypothesis as a framework for experimentation is offered. Pre-sented is an alternative framework—the query/ model approach—which many scientists may dis-cover is the framework they are actually using, despite being required to give lip service to the hypothesis