Finally, Section 3.4 examines the bold philosophical conjecture advanced by some scientists, according to which the physical world itself may be, at its bottom, a discrete, digital automaton.
These trends were typified by the University of Berlin (1809), in which laboratory experimentation replaced conjecture; theological, philosophical, and other traditional doctrines were examined with a new rigour and objectivity; and modern standards of academic freedom were pioneered.
The case presented many opportunities for psychological conjecture, he wrote, but "what is not conjecture, but fact, is the philosophical conclusion which we are forced to draw".
In 1964 the French social scientist Bertrand de Jouvenel published L'Art de la conjecture (The Art of Conjecture), in which he offered a systematic philosophical rationale for the field.
Many of these efforts are motivated by the hope that success in determining such a sequence will provide an objective basis for conjectures about the development of Plato's philosophical views over the course of his literary lifetime.
Plato does begin to sketch a theory of cognition in the Timaeus (where he lets up from the search for apodictic philosophical truth that preoccupies most of his dialogues, and puts forward his conjectures about the construction and working of the natural world).
Science, particularly social science, being what it is, many conclusions will be provisional; the philosophical moral psychologist must be prepared to adjudicate controversies in other fields, or offer informed conjecture regarding future findings.
"These are just conjectures.
Theories are (often) bold conjectures.
