Notes on a Working Hypothesis: the Retardate Problem Drinker

Abstract

Numerous writers on the philosophy of science have pointed out that science develops in a more or less orderly fashion by creating levels of explanation. The lowest level would be descriptive, with phenomena collected and classified according to shared characteristics. An attempt is then made to establish a higher level by discovering lawful causal relationships among the classified phenomena. A still higher level of explanation is attempted—the level of theory—by finding laws which in themselves interrelate the relationships found at the intermediate level. Even casual study of the kinds of research data being produced on all aspects of alcoholism shows that the scientific endeavor is proceeding on all three levels simultaneously with attempts at careful description occurring here, some lawful relationships being found there, and efforts at theory-making on elsewhere.