That is, it's not necessarily the case that "If we don't take that as a workable hypothesis, then all that we build is opinion ..."
One can adopt not your statement, "All statements which cannot be resolved by application of the scientific method are opinion," but the similar statement "Some statements which cannot be resolved by application of the scientific method are opinion." This will allow facts to be discovered which are scientifically verifiable; it would produce opinions; and it would produce statements that could be held as facts without being scientifically verifiable. It does not, as far as I can see, result in the triumph of superstition. And, unlike your statement, it does not require circularity of argument, a strong point in its favor. |
