re science and methodology was homeopathy tradition in article qk qqinngvs im u cs utexas edu turpin cs utexas edu russell turpin writes in article apr ecsvax uncecs edu ccreegan ecsvax uncecs edu charles l creegan writes what about kekule s infamous derivation of the idea of benzene rings from a daydream of snakes in the fire biting their tails is this specific enough to count certainly it turns up repeatedly in basic phil of sci texts as an example of the inventive component of hypothesizing i think the question is what is extra scientific about this it has been a long time since anyone has proposed restrictions on where one comes up with ideas in order for them to be considered legitimate hypotheses the point in short is this hypotheses and speculation in science may come from wild flights of fancy daydreams ancient traditions modern quackery or anywhere else russell yes but typically they don t not every wild flight of fancy serves or can serve in the appropriate relation to a hypothesis it is somewhat interesting that when anyone is challanged to provide an example of this sort the only one they come up with is the one about kekule surely there must be others but apparently this is regarded as an extreme example of a non rational process in science whereby a successful hypothesis was proposed but how non rational is it of course we can t hope currently at least to explain how or why kekule had the daydream of snakes in the fire biting their tails surely it wasn t the only daydream he had what was special about this one could it have had something to do with a perceived analogy between the geometry of the snakes and problems concerning geometry of molecules is such analogical reasoning extra scientific or is it rather at the very heart of science perice s notion of abduction the use of models within and across disciplines upon close examination is there a non rational mystical leap taking place or is it perhaps closer to a formal though often incomplete analogy or model gary h merrill principal systems developer c compiler development sas institute inc sas campus dr cary nc sasghm theseus unx sas com mcnc sas sasghm
