Chris wrote:Newton claimed not even to "frame" hypotheses, much less test them.
Einstein, Newton's gravitational theory nemesis [-:)], once advised you should take no notice of what physicists say about their procedures, instead watch what they do. In Newton's case, he framed a gravitational hypothesis that was (just!) refuted in naive Popperian scientific terms by unexplained anomalies in the movement of the perihelion of mercury and the magnitude of the deflection of light from stars passing close to the sun, both of which vindicated Einstein's updating of gravitational theory.
Actually, I don't believe that Newton ever categorically rejected the framing of hypotheses!
His famous 'I frame no hypotheses' statement was in a very specific context: the mechanism of gravity. Newton was no happier with 'spooky action at a distance' than Einstein was, but the only mechanism that Newton could come up with was the hand of God, which he did not regard as an acceptable _scientific_ explanation.
Therefore, it was in regard to this specific situation that Newton said 'I'm not going to make a hypothesis about the mechanism of gravity' -- in modern parlance: 'I'm not going there'. See James Gleick's excellent recent biography of Newton.
Also, I just read an interesting passage by Einstein in which he points out that he did not supplant or disprove Newton's physics.
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