Hypothesis vs Postulate - What's the difference?
hypothesis | postulate |
(sciences) Used loosely, a tentative conjecture explaining an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem that can be tested by further observation, investigation and/or experimentation. As a scientific term of art, see the attached quotation. Compare to theory, and quotation given there.
* 2005 , Ronald H. Pine, http://www.csicop.org/specialarticles/show/intelligent_design_or_no_model_creationism, 15 October 2005:
(general) An assumption taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation.
(grammar) The antecedent of a conditional statement.
Something assumed without proof as being self-evident or generally accepted, especially when used as a basis for an argument.
A fundamental element; a basic principle.
(logic) An axiom.
A requirement; a prerequisite.
To assume as a truthful or accurate premise or axiom, especially as a basis of an argument.
* 1883 , , Prop. XXII,
* 1911 , Encyclopædia Britannica , "",
(ambitransitive, Christianity, historical) To appoint or request one's appointment to an ecclesiastical office.
* 1874 , John Small (ed.), The Poetical Works of Gavin Douglas, Bishop of Dunkeld , Vol 1,
(ambitransitive, obsolete) To request, demand or claim for oneself.
As nouns the difference between hypothesis and postulate
is that hypothesis is used loosely, a tentative conjecture explaining an observation, phenomenon or scientific problem that can be tested by further observation, investigation and/or experimentation. As a scientific term of art, see the attached quotation. Compare to theory, and quotation given there while postulate is something assumed without proof as being self-evident or generally accepted, especially when used as a basis for an argument.As a verb postulate is
to assume as a truthful or accurate premise or axiom, especially as a basis of an argument.As an adjective postulate is
postulated.hypothesis
English
(wikipedia hypothesis)Noun
(hypotheses)- Far too many of us have been taught in school that a scientist, in the course of trying to figure something out, will first come up with a "hypothesis" (a guess or surmise—not necessarily even an "educated" guess). ... [But t]he word "hypothesis" should be used, in science, exclusively for a reasoned, sensible, knowledge-informed explanation for why some phenomenon exists or occurs. An hypothesis can be as yet untested; can have already been tested; may have been falsified; may have not yet been falsified, although tested; or may have been tested in a myriad of ways countless times without being falsified; and it may come to be universally accepted by the scientific community. An understanding of the word "hypothesis," as used in science, requires a grasp of the principles underlying Occam's Razor and Karl Popper's thought in regard to "falsifiability"—including the notion that any respectable scientific hypothesis must, in principle, be "capable of" being proven wrong (if it should, in fact, just happen to be wrong), but none can ever be proved to be true. One aspect of a proper understanding of the word "hypothesis," as used in science, is that only a vanishingly small percentage of hypotheses could ever potentially become a theory.
Synonyms
* supposition * theory * thesis * educated guess * guess * See alsoDerived terms
* hypothesize * hypothetic * hypothetical * hypotheticallypostulate
English
(wikipedia postulate)Noun
(en noun)Verb
(postulat)- But this pleasure or pain is postulated to come to us accompanied by the idea of an external cause;
- [T]he attempt to arrive at a physical explanation of existence led the Ionian thinkers to postulate various primal elements or simply the infinite ?? ???????.
p. xvi
- [A]lthough Douglas was postulated to it [the Abbacy of Arbroath], and signed letters and papers under this designation his nomination was never completed.