The book _World Hypotheses: A Study in Evidence_ was published in 1942, with a copyright renewal in 1970. An electronic version is now available from the Univerity of California Press at https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520341869
* A softcopy version of the book can be borrowed, one hour at a time, [from the Internet Archive](https://archive.org/details/worldhypothesess00pepp)
The Table of Contents appears below, with links into selected content and interpretations. Preface to World Hypotheses (1942)
## Part One: The Root-Metaphor Theory
I. The Utter Skeptic > 1. World Hypotheses as Objects in the World > 2. The Position of the Utter Skeptic
II. Dogmatists > 1. Definition of a Dogmatist > 2. The Constituents of Belief > 3. Conviction and Credibility > 4. Criteria of Belief > 5. The Dogma of Infallible Authority > 6. The Dogma of Self-evident Principles > 7. The Dogma of Indubitable Fact > 8. Legitimate Uses of Authority and Certainty
III. Evidence and Corroboration > 1. Common Sense > 2. Tension between Common Sense and Refined Knowledge > 3. Types of Corroboration in Refined Knowledge > 4. Data > 5. Data and Positivists
IV. Hypotheses > 1. Views about Hypotheses > 2. Scope and Precision > 3. World Hypotheses Demanded by Structural Corroboration > 4. World Hypotheses Include Data > 5. Evidence and Interpretation Merged in World Hypotheses > 6. Structural versus Conventionalistic Hypotheses
V. Root Metaphors > 1. Root Metaphors Induced from World Theories > 2. Can Logical Postulates Make World Theories? > 3. The Root Metaphor Method > 4. Maxim I: A World Hypothesis Is Determined by Its Root Metaphor > 5. Maxim II: Each World Hypothesis Is Autonomous > 6. Maxim III: Eclecticism Is Confusing > 7. Maxim IV: Concepts Which Have Lost Contact with Their Root Metaphors Are Empty Abstractions
VI. Examples of Inadequacies in World Hypotheses > 1. Tests of Adequacy > 2. The Animistic World Hypothesis, an Example of Inadequate Precision > 3. An Example of Empty Abstractionism > 4. The Mystic World Hypothesis, an Example of Inadequate Scope > 5. An Example of Eclecticism
## Part Two: The Relatively Adequate Hypotheses
VII. A General View of the Hypotheses > 1. Comparisons among the Four Hypotheses > 2. The Trends of Eclecticism > 3. The Approach to the Four Hypotheses
VIII. Formism > 1. Root Metaphor and Categories of Immanent Formism > 2. The Theory of Types > 3. Classes > 4. Root Metaphor and Categories of Transcendent Formism > 5. Amalgamation of the Immanent and the Transcendent Categories of Formism > 6. Concrete Existence > 7. Truth in Formism > 8. The Transition to Mechanism
IX. Mechanism > 1. Two Poles of Mechanism > 2. The Mechanistic Root Metaphor > 3. The Mechanistic Categories > 4. Discrete Mechanism > 5. Consolidated Mechanism > 6. Secondary Categories > 7. Mechanistic Theory of Truth
X. Contextualism > 1. The Contextualistic Root Metaphor > 2. Derivation of the Contextualistic Categories > 3. Quality > 4. Strands and Context of Texture > 5. References of Strands > 6. Individual Textures > 7. Operational Theory of Truth
XI. Organicism > 1. The Root Metaphor of Organicism > 2. The Categories of Organicism > 3. An Illustration > 4. Application of the Categories > 5. Time and Truth
## Part Three: Summary, Criticism, and Answers
XII Review and Conclusions > 1. A Review of the Argument > 2. The Criticisms > 3. The Answers
A digest of Precursors to World Hypotheses (1942) was written by [Ronald K. Hoeflin](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_K._Hoeflin) in A Critical Appraisal of Root Metaphor Theory (1987)..