  Such arguments for atomism highlight Gassendi's anticipation of the modern notion of inference to the best explanation (IBE) as a means of judging among competing hypotheses. In advancing this strategy, he emphasizes the capacity of a given hypothesis to account for a range of different phenomena as a guide to the degree to which that hypothesis approximates the truth. This strategy for justifying claims about atoms also reaffirms his reliance on empirical data in seeking confirmation of claims regarding the evident and nonevident alike. While much is untenable or unlikely about these views, Gassendi has at least offered a set of proposals towards resolving one of empiricism's more vexing questions—how to transcend the bounds of sensory data. We can know about unobservables like atoms, he proposes, just in case our empiricism advances scientific knowledge through hypothetical reasoning and warrants the sorts of inferences about physical phenomena allowing for unseen features of the world—for which the sensible features can provide evidence.