List of topics (scientific method)
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The scientific method
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
Observation
-- methods -- causation -- investigation --
measurement -- solar day vs sidereal day. mass vs weight
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. The wave theory of light overturned by photoelectric effect. Peer review unused for cold fusion.
Departures from method
Michael Polanyi elegant beautiful Occam's Razor.
Ptolemaic system Nicolaus Copernicus Tycho Brahe Kepler Isaac Newton Galileo model
Annotated list of related issues
Paradigm change- Paradigm, the most unpopular word in English.
- Thomas Kuhn started a new paradigm by telling us about paradigms.
- The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is Kuhn's book.
- Paradigm shift.
- 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
- Uncomfortable science, due to statistician John Tukey: Inference from a limited sample of data, where further samples influenced by the same cause system, a finite natural phenomenon for which it is difficult to overcome the problem of using a common sample of data for both exploratory data analysis and confirmatory data analysis. Statistical bias through testing hypostheses suggested by the data.
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.
See Also
- Bayesian logic -- Quasi-empirical methods -- Foundation ontology -- Ontology -- Philosophy of mathematics -- mathematics --
- Post-processualism is a methodological curiosity from Archaeology.
- Structuralism -- post-structuralism -- deconstruction-- post-modernism -- Latour, Bruno -- Secularism --