List of scientific method topics
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring new knowledge, as well as for correcting and integrating previous knowledge. It is based on observable, empirical, measurable evidence, and subject to laws of reasoning, both deductive and inductive. Topics on scientific method include:
Contents |
[edit] Nature of scientific method
| Scientific method |
 |
| Background |
|---|
| Platonic idealism |
| Logical argument |
| Bayesian inference |
| Scientific community |
| D |
| E |
| In the Middle Ages |
| In the Renaissance |
| Scientific Revolution |
| Characterization |
| Natural sciences |
| F |
| Hypothesis |
| H |
| Prediction |
| K |
| Experiment |
| I |
| L |
| Timelines |
| Discoveries |
| Experiments |
- Main article: Scientific method
[edit] Elements of scientific method
[edit] Observation
[edit] Hypothesis
Use Occam's Razor to prune the list of hypothetical explanations of the observation.
[edit] Prediction
A prediction is a logical inference from the hypothesis — Bayesian inference is subjective use of statistical reasoning — Deductive reasoning — Retrodiction
[edit] Experiment
Feynman: "We can do anything we want (in theorizing). Then all we have to do is check with the experiment."
- Design of experiments
- Experimental control
- Natural experiment
- Observational study
- Field experiment
- Self-experimentation
- Placebo effect
[edit] Evaluation
Test of the inference: prediction and experimentation to establish new facts. Critical examination of the hypothetical explanation:
- peer review by community of scholars, using Logic etc. The wave theory of light overturned by photoelectric effect.
- Peer review unused for cold fusion also the Analysis of the Experiment.
[edit] History of scientific method
- Main articles: History of scientific method, Timeline of the history of scientific method, and History of science
[edit] What made the scientific method succeed?
- Political factors
- Economic factors
- Other factors
- Rediscovery of ancient Greek, Arabic, and other texts by Europeans during the medieval period
- Invention of the printing press facilitated knowledge sharing
- Protection of the community of scientists who fostered the discoveries
- The reformation, seizure of the orders led to secular communities of scholars
- Britain was an island nation
- American Revolution - challenged the existing social order (absolutist monarchies, divine right of kings)
[edit] Why didn't the scientific method arise elsewhere?
[edit] Scientific method concepts
[edit] Empirical methods
- Empiricism
- Robert Grosseteste
- Roger Bacon
- Francis Bacon
- Baconian method
- Empirical validation
- Operationalization
[edit] 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.
[edit] Problem of induction
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
[edit] Scientific creativity
- 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
[edit] When method goes wrong
[edit] Critique of scientific method
- 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.
- Sociology of Scientific Knowledge
- Scientism
[edit] Use of statistics
- 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 hypotheses suggested by the data. Prediction interval.
[edit] Relationship of scientific method to technology
Technology is subordinate to Science; Scientific discovery rests on technology.
Science and technology studies
[edit] Departures from method
Michael Polanyi elegant beautiful Occam's Razor.
Ptolemaic system Nicolaus Copernicus Tycho Brahe Kepler Isaac Newton Galileo
[edit] Scientific method scholars
[edit] Scientific method-related lists
[edit] 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 --
physical law -- Science policy -- Scientific Revolution -- Sociology of knowledge -- Science studies -- Conflicting theories
