"[S]cience mainly...advances by leaps; and the impulse for each leap is either some new observational resource, or some novel way of reasoning about the observations..."Scientists eager to learn through frontier research often seek studies where some "breakthrough" may push a would-be science across the border to scholarly acceptability. In contrast with efforts which attempt to define by principle what is and what is not science or to classify by distinction varieties of science, Peirce's description of the quintessence of science as convergent opinion is our surest guide in evaluating those areas of inquiry which may be emerging as fields ripe for scientific development.
C.S. Peirce
Lessons from the History of Science
Publication notes:
Would-be Scientist, ca 1977.