 By ‘the inductive ground’ for a hypothesis Keynes clearly means the data that the hypothesis fits. Keynes means that when some theorist who undertakes to test a hypothesis first proposes it, typically some other (presumably theoretical) form of support prompted the proposal. Thus hypotheses which are proposed without being built to fit the empirical data (which they are subsequently shown to entail) are typically better supported than hypotheses which are proposed merely to fit the data—for the latter lack the independent support possessed by the former. The appearance of plausibility to predictivism arises because the role of the preliminary hypothesis-inducing evidence is being suppressed. 