The phrase "auxiliary hypothesis" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used in scientific or philosophical discussions, particularly in the context of theories and their supporting assumptions.
Example: "In testing the main hypothesis, we must also consider the auxiliary hypothesis that accounts for external variables."
Alternatives: "supporting hypothesis" or "secondary hypothesis".
Eliminativism needs an account of when it is rationally acceptable to divert an experimental challenge to some auxiliary hypothesis and when the hypothesis under test should be abandoned.
Scientists reacted in the 'refutation' situation by making a hidden auxiliary hypothesis, which had previously been considered plausible, bear the brunt of the refutation, or, if you like, by introducing that hypothesis's negation as an apparently ad hoc face-saving auxiliary hypothesis". D: the observed secular acceleration of the moon.
But odds on the auxiliary hypothesis A drop sharply, from prior 3 2 to posterior 3/1000, i.e., the probability of A drops from 60% to about three tenths of 1%.
Skeptical conclusions about scientific hypothesis-testing are often drawn from the presumed arbitrariness of answers to the question of which to give up -- theory, or auxiliary hypothesis -- when they jointly contradict empirical data.
But even when an auxiliary hypothesis is already well-confirmed, we cannot simply assume that it is unproblematic, or just known to be true.
In order to test non-instantial theories, such as Newton's theory of gravitation, first empirical generalizations must be derived from them with the help of auxiliary hypothesis, and only thereafter can they be tested by inspection (Feyerabend 1962, 28).
Auxiliary hypotheses are critical, he argues, but may be irrational.
A scientific paradigm consists of a core theory surrounded by a number of auxiliary hypotheses.
Generally they attempt to rescue their theory by dint of shoring it up with auxiliary hypotheses.
The core theory generally remains constant, whereas the auxiliary hypotheses are modified in the light of new or conflicting evidence.
Sure, his poll numbers stayed robust even after he kept saying racist and insulting things, but there were good auxiliary hypotheses to explain why that was the case.
