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party. Aspects of the sample are tested using procedures that have been
experimentally validated on known samples, but the results obtained from
a forensic sample are those of an examination or analysis, not an experiment.
It is worth emphasizing that this process is inherently inductive. The analyst
is gathering facts about a piece of evidence that will later be combined with
other facts and assumptions to form a theory of what happened in the case.
 
3.
Science Lessons from History
E. O. Wilson, in his most recent work, 
 
Concilience
(Wilson, 1998), reminds
us that science has not always been so narrowly defined. During the 18th-
century Enlightenment, the first scientific philosophers began to explore the
borders of knowledge. Francis Bacon, the father of the philosophy of science,
defined science more broadly as a method of investigation available to any
branch of learning including psychology, the social sciences, and even the
humanities (Bacon, 1620). He was a proponent of 
 
induction
, which may be
described as amassing large amounts of data, then attempting to discern
patterns (Bacon, 1620). This was in counterpoint to 
 
deductive reasoning
, the
main method of scientific inquiry in classical and medieval times, and
reclaimed later by the reductionists over the next several centuries of Western
scientific development. In simplistic terms, deductive reasoning may be
defined as proceeding from the general to the specific — suggesting a theory
and performing experiments to see if the results are predicted by the theory.
It is important to realize that inductive reasoning (proceeding from the
specific to the general), whether performed consciously or not, is necessary,
 
a priori
, to generate the theory.
A case investigation, including the laboratory analysis of physical evi-
dence, practically defines inductive reasoning if it is performed correctly.
Interestingly, a common pitfall is to slip into deductive reasoning, latching
onto a convenient theory that may or may not follow from the data collected.
Temptation then leads us to try to fit the facts to the theory, however poor
the fit. Bacon also emphasized the importance of a minimum of preconcep-
tions, as did Descarte* (1637), who insisted on systematic doubt as the first
* 
 
Cogito, ergo sum
— I think therefore I am.
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Introduction
9
principle of learning. Clearly, an open mind is prerequisite to a search for
the truth in the solution of crime.
Wilson’s definition of science harks back to those 18th-century scientific
philosophers to encompass a wider range of possibilities. He suggests that
science is “the organized systematic enterprise that gathers knowledge about
the world and condenses the knowledge into testable laws and principles.” His
corollaries share many common points with the elements of science outlined
above, but emphasize slightly different aspects of the scientific process:
The diagnostic features of science that distinguish it from pseudoscience
are first, repeatability: The same phenomenon is sought again, preferably
by independent investigation, and the interpretation given to it is confirmed
or discarded by means of novel analysis and experimentation. Second, econ-
omy: Scientists attempt to abstract the information into the form that is
both simplest and aesthetically most pleasing — the combination called
elegance — while yielding the largest amount of information with the least
amount of effort. Third, mensuration: If something can be properly mea-
sured, using universally accepted scales, generalizations about it are ren-
dered unambiguous. Fourth, heuristics: The best science stimulates further
discovery, often in unpredictable new directions; and the new knowledge
provides an additional test of the original principles that led to its discovery.
Fifth and finally, consilience: the explanations of different phenomena most
likely to survive are those that can be connected and proved consistent with
one another. (Wilson, 1998)
Sidestepping, for our limited purpose, the larger debate in the scientific
community over Wilson’s sociobiological meaning of 
 
consilience
(Naess,
1998), we can certainly apply the concept to the interpretation of facts and
analyses in a case investigation. In fact, it is the goal of a criminal inquiry to
provide a reconstruction consistent with all known facts and stated assump-
tions. Additionally, the concept that the simplest explanation is often the best
is not lost in attempting crime reconstruction.*
,
**
Perhaps, in the end, a more flexible notion of the definition of science
will provide a stronger framework upon which to hang our notion of forensic
science. Although we will be concentrating on the natural sciences, certainly
the ideas we will present may be adopted by any branch of learning willing
to systematize its knowledge and use it to generate fundamental, testable laws
and principles.
* In the 14th century, the British monk and philosopher, William of Occam, argued that
the best explanation of a given phenomenon is generally the simplest, the one with the
fewest assumptions. This principle, called 
 
Occam’s razor
, was the downfall of the Ptolemaic
model of the solar system in the Middle Ages (Horgan, 1996).
** On the other hand, we have all had the experience that truth is stranger than fiction,