... Presocratic theories fail to meet this criterion. Their pronouncements are cast in a dogmatic form, not as tentative hypotheses whose fate is decided by systematic experiment. Indeed there is little evidence to suggest that many of the Presocratics' theories are the result of any experimentation. For a lot of their assertions would have been revealed as false if they had performed even the most simple of tests. For example, Anaximenes proported that density changed with temperature. That, while water when it turns into steam expands, when it turns into ice it contracts. Anaximenes could have refuted this theory with a simple experiment. Cornford states that, just by observing the shattering effect frozen water's expansion has on a glass jar, Anaximenes could have concluded that his theory was mistaken. (Cornford, 1942. p33). Furthermore, many of the Presocratics' theories are too speculative even to be verifiable by observation or experiment. Anaximander, for instance, ...

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