You MUST start with the premise first. There is no other way! BOO to those "who disagree with the idea of starting from a premise first, and then finding examples to support it". Try telling a classroom of chemistry students to just "observe". "Observe what?" they will cry. Exactly. There are almost unlimited numbers of measurements you can take. You need to get specific and apply a selective filter to the world to examine the things you find interesting. These kinds of books are the hypothesis. Other people can do the testing. If I could quote Karl Popper here I would. He was all about this stuff - philosophy of science.
- carl morris