existing models based on unaltered sensory experience, or to derive properties from that experience only through methodologies recognized and accepted in that particular science, the body of which constitutes what is called epistemology.

In technical terms, let’s assume that the scientist discovers the following:

A new property is observed not previously known of a person. In such a situation, the scientist will work unrelentingly to find if that property is actually new or an artifact of other, established properties; in this case:

We are overly simplifying here for the sake of presentation, but we assume the argument is transparent and can be readily comprehended by the reader. In correcting the formal specification, the scientist applied all the inference rules available to recast the anomalous property to an accepted one. At this point we observe that any naturally skeptical person would probably react like our scientist.

Now let’s consider another situation, that of objects falling to the ground, and define the concept of force:

As we saw in Chapter 3, there are four basic forces in nature, i.e. strong nuclear force, the weak force, electro-magnetic force and gravity. So we have:

In these examples, we have objects whose properties are not directly observable. They are inferred from the successful applications of theories that use them to explain and predict phenomena of nature, themselves directly observable, such as, for gravity the falling of an apple from a tree to the earth. This is not formally different from positing a god with an unobserved property (“never dies”). In each case, a property finds its presence justified by accepted results. The main difference appears to be in the trust attributed to the result. Science, physics in particular, has been particularly aggressive at positing such hypothetic entities as immanent, calling them the source of laws (the law of gravity), even though such laws are periodically changed as new knowledge accumulates. For example, consider the potential changes such as we find in the current discussions in quantum physics related to the formulation of the gravitational force; the quest is

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