Why are most scientists completely indifferent to scientific methodology? It is what passes for scientific methodol. is a misrepresentation of what scientists do or ought to do. It is important to explain what is wrong with the traditional methodol. of '¿¿inductive'¿¿ reasoning, & to show that the alternative scheme of reasoning assoc. with the names of Whewell & Peirce & Popper can give the scientist a certain useful insight into the way he thinks. In this alternative scheme, the energizing force of scientific inquiry comes from an imaginative preconception of what might be true -- a preconception which is at once exposed to critical analysis, to find out whether or not the imagined world corresponds with the real one. Scientific inquiry is essentially a dialogue between imaginative insight & critical appraisal; between the possible & the actual; between what could be true & what is in fact the case.