List of topics (Scientific Method)
List of topics (Scientific Method)Those interested in the scientific method can monitor changes to related pages by clicking on on Related changes in the sidebar.
Roger Bacon -- thirteenth century --Francis Bacon's New Organon
interpretations of the scientific method --
science -- philosophy of science-- history of science -- sociology of knowledge -- process --knowledge
measurement -- solar day vs sidereal day. mass vs weight
Ptolemaic system Nicolaus Copernicus Tycho Brahe Kepler Isaac Newton Galileo model
The scientific method
Observation
-- methods -- causation -- investigation -- Hypothesis
Use Occam's Razor to prune the list of hypothetical explanations of the observation.-- pro:Karl Popper Falsifiability -- con:Paul Feyerabend -- statistical hypothesis testingPrediction
A prediction is a logical inference from the hypothesis -- Bayesian inference is subjective use of statistical reasoning -- Deductive reasoning
Experiment
Feynman: "We can do anything we want (in theorizing). Then all we have to do is check with the experiment." Design of experiments -- placebo effect --Evaluation
Test of the inference: prediction and experimentation to establish new facts. Critical examination of the hypothetical explantion:
peer review by community of scholars, using Logic etc. Isaac Newton's wave theory of light overturned by photoelectric effect.
Peer review unused for cold fusion.Departures from method
Michael Polanyi elegant beautiful Occam's Razor.Annotated list of related issues
Empirical methods
The problem of induction questions the logical basis of scientific statements.
- Inductive reasoning appears to lie at the core of scientific method, yet also appears to be invalid.
- David Hume was the person who first pointed out the problem of induction.
- Karl Popper offered one solution, Falsifiability
- Linus Pauling "How do I do it? I have a lot of ideas, and throw out the bad ones".
- Isaac Newton's moon and apple.
- Kekule's benzene-ring.
- Michael Polanyi
- Tacit knowledge
- Paul Feyerabend argued that the search for a definitive scientific method was misplaced, and even counterproductive.
- Imre Lakatos attempted to bridge the gap between Popper and Kuhn.
- Scientism
What made the Scientific Method succeed?
- Political factors
- Economic factors
- Other factors
- Protection of the community of scientists who fostered the discoveries
- The reformation, seizure of the orders led to secular communities of scholars
- England was an island nation
- Protection of the community of scientists who fostered the discoveries
Why didn't the Scientific Method arise elsewhere?
- Greece
- Indic civilization
- Islamic civilization
- China
- Africa
- America, North / South
Relationship to Techology
Technology is subordinate to Science; Scientific discovery rests on technology.- Post-processualism is a methodological curiosity from Archaeology.
- Structuralism -- post-structuralism -- deconstruction-- post-modernism -- Latour, Bruno -- Secularism --
