Publisher's Synopsis
"The hypothesis is defended that the laws of physics are not restrictive in the sense in which laws in statute books are. The laws of physics, it is claimed, neither require nor prohibit any specific number, event, condition, property, configuration or other feature. They permit everything to occur that is logically consistent with all observable facts and that is, in this sense, logically possible. This can be expressed by saying that every valid generalization in physics can be so stated that the term 'any' or 'either' occurs in its formulation: Examples are - 'A solar system may contain any number of planets. A nuclear particle may carry any number of unit charges up to the stability limit. Space may conform to any geometry. An indivisible particle may carry either a positive or a negative unit charge.' It is shown that physicists have often acted on this hypothesis in the past and that, when they have done so, progress has been made towards the unification of physics. Conclusions have, nevertheless, sometimes been based on the alternative hypothesis that the laws of physics are of the statute book kind, though perhaps inadvertently. These conclusions have had to be abandoned later in favour of non-specific ones. In this respect, it is claimed, physics differs basically from all other disciplines, including biology. The hypothesis defended here is given the name 'Principle of Minimum Assumption'. It is declared to be the most basic of all the principles of physics. If it is applied with uncompromising consistency, it precludes every ad hoc explanatory hypothesis of a specific kind. For if the Principle of Minimum Assumption holds for the whole of the physicist's universe of discourse, it must be theoretically possible to infer all other generalizations in that universe from this principle without the need for any other hypotheses." Reginald Otto Kapp was a a mechanical engineer who was appointed the first professor of electrical engineering in Birmingham University, lecturer, author and founder of The Presentation of Technical Information (PTI).
