Science in Quotes: Theories and Reality

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Deductivism in mathematical literature and inductivism in scientific papers are simply the postures we choose to be seen in when the curtain goes up and the public sees us. The theatrical illusion is shattered if we ask what goes on behind the scenes. In real life discovery and justification are almost always different processes.

—Peter Brian Medawar, in “Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought”

Peter Brian Medawar (1915–1987) was a immunologist. He shared the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet “for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance,” according to the Nobel Prize website.