The 'Ought' Of Science

There are a number of reasons why it is important whether scientists think theories "ought" to work -- apart from "do" work. I was unable to prove this to the satisfaction of editors, but think I can now. This week I decided to search major scientific works. They are replete with the word "ought":

Copernicus: "Chord AC ought to be greater than half of chord AD."

Newton: "The same force ought to generate the same velocity."

Darwin: "We ought to find ... closely allied forms."

Einstein: "We ought to obtain for the orbit of the planet an ellipse."

Schrödinger: "It ought to be possible to increase the magnetisation."

Feynman: "We can understand ... more or less how things ought to behave."

Hawking: "A hot body ought to give off electromagnetic waves."

OBSERVATION: This is an example of something simple which I could check because of the enormous processing power of modern search engines. A generation ago, it would hardly have been possible.