Guided by
empirical data, the investigator rather develops a system of thought
which, in general, is built up logically from a small number of
fundamental assumptions, the so-called axioms. We call such a system
of thought a theory. The theory finds the justification for its
existence in the fact that it correlates a large number of single
observations, and it is just here that the " truth " of the theory
lies.
Corresponding to the same complex of empirical data, there may be
several theories, which differ from one another to a considerable
extent. But as regards the deductions from the theories which are
capable of being tested, the agreement between the theories may be so
complete that it becomes difficult to find any deductions in which the
two theories differ from each other. As an example, a case of general
interest is available in the province of biology, in the Darwinian
theory of the development of species by selection in the struggle for
existence, and in the theory of development which is based on the
hypothesis of the hereditary transmission of acquired characters.
We have another instance of far-reaching agreement between the
deductions from two theories in Newtonian mechanics on the one hand,
and the general theory of relativity on the other.
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