So far as the strength and weakness of the arguments for mental
telegraphy depend upon the perspective of value attached to the
various data and to the conditions under which these have been
gathered, I have presented my estimate and indicated the burden of
my conclusions. But I am aware that I may have laid myself open to
the charge--which will be brought not by the advocates of telepathy,
but by its most emphatic opponents--of a neglect of consideration of
the general logical status of telepathy as a germane and legitimate
hypothesis. That the hypothesis of telepathy when carefully
interpreted is capable, if not of explaining the data, at least of
being fitted without undue straining to a large portion of the data,
may be claimed with some plausibility; that I regard the hypothesis
as unwarranted and unnecessary has been made sufficiently clear. But
what if the hypothesis is not a legitimate one, not one which the
methods and spirit of science can properly or profitably consider? If
this be the case, it would seem superfluous to consider whether the
hypothesis is warranted by the data or capable of explaining them.
That it is the policy of science to allow the utmost latitude of
opinion and theory and to interpret the possible in an unprejudiced
and liberal spirit will readily be conceded. That it is equally
the policy of science to demand of all claimants for recognition
authentic credentials framed in accordance with the laws of logic and
the principles of evidence and probability, is sometimes overlooked.
Science cannot possibly consider all hypotheses, but only legitimate
ones. To explain coincidences and the success of experiments in
thought-transference by assuming that there is a demon, whose
special business it is to make people have uncanny feelings when
their relatives in distant places are dying or in danger, and to
suggest to the guesser what is in the mind of the party of the second
part in the experiment, is certainly not an hypothesis worthy of
consideration by science; and incidentally be it noted that this
hypothesis may be successfully shaped to fit the facts, and cannot
be definitely disproved. Some absurd hypotheses may be readily
disproved and others not; but are scientists really called upon to
disprove them? There recently fell under my observation a claim for
the theory that when persons felt an unaccountable aversion for one
another, either at once or after a time of friendship, it was due to
their opposite horoscopic natures, and it would be found that their
birthdays were not far from six months apart, that is, nearly as
far apart as they possibly could be. Divorces, breaches of promise,
family feuds, and antipathies at first sight could thus be accounted
for. Now, it would involve no very burdensome undertaking to disprove
this theory; but I should not expect a cordial approval of my efforts
on the part of my colleagues if I carried through the investigation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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