Of one thing Montaigne was certain: Reflections on the full experiment.

Abstract

A recent viewpoint article by J. R. Cougle (see record 2025-32396-001) noted that, of 77 empirical articles appearing in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science in 2023, "only three…incorporated an experimental manipulation" (i.e., 96% are nonexperimental)-skewed, to be certain, perhaps even alarmingly so. This is at the same time a useful observation and, in the present author's view, in need of modest amendment and more context, and thus somewhat less alarming. The call for the full experiment draws in part on a yearning for finality and certainty, but as Montaigne, quantum physicists, would-be solvers of astrophysics' n-body problem, and the authors of works of profundity such as Ecclesiastes (possibly King Solomon) and Job (author[s] unknown) all understood, and we should all learn, the universe and all it contains, including humans and our nature, are inherently uncertain. Except, that is, for uncertainty itself. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).