These maxims and the art of interpreting them may be said to constitute the premisses of science but I prefer to call them our scientific beliefs. These premisses or beliefs are embodied in a tradition, the tradition of science.
But even physics cannot be defined from an atomic topography.
Moreover, only a strong and united scientific opinion imposing the intrinsic value of scientific progress on society at large can elicit the support of scientific inquiry by the general public.
We could not, for example, arrive at a principle like that of entropy without introducing some additional principle, such as randomness, to this topography.
My title is intended to suggest that the community of scientists is organized in a way which resembles certain features of a body politic and works according to economic principles similar to those by which the production of material goods is regulated.
The process of philosophic and scientific enlightenment has shaken the stability of beliefs held explicitly as articles of faith.
