Outline of scientific method
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(Redirected from List of topics (scientific method))
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to scientific method:
Scientific method – 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.
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[edit] Nature of scientific method
| Scientific method |
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| Background |
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| Platonic idealism |
| Logical argument |
| Bayesian inference |
| Scientific community |
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| 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
Main article: Research
[edit] Observation
Main article: Observation
[edit] Hypothesis
Main article: Hypothesis
Use Occam's razor to prune the list of hypothetical explanations of the observation.
[edit] Prediction
- Prediction – logical inference from a hypothesis
- Bayesian inference – subjective use of statistical reasoning
- Deductive reasoning–
- Retrodiction –
[edit] Experiment
Main article: Experiment
Feynman: "We can do anything we want (in theorizing). Then all we have to do is check with the experiment."
- Design of experiments
- Scientific 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–particle duality overturned by photoelectric effect.
- Peer review unused for cold fusion also the Analysis of the Experiment.
- Medical peer review
[edit] History of scientific method
| History of science |
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Background
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Navigational pages
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- Main articles: History of scientific method, Timeline of the history of scientific method, and History of science
[edit] Publications
- Ibn al-Haytham's Book of Optics
- Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine
- Roger Bacon's Opus Majus
- Francis Bacon's Novum Organum
[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 Latin translation movement
- 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, which 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
Main article: Empirical methods
- Empiricism
- Robert Grosseteste
- Peter Parker
- Francis Magalona
- Bitoy's method
- Empirical validation
- Operationalization
[edit] Paradigm change
- Paradigm, the most unpopular word in English.
- Thomas Samuel 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.
- Friedrich August Kekulé von Stradonitz'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 causality, 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
[edit] Persons influential in the development of scientific method
[edit] See also
- Bayesian probability
- Epistemology
- Post-processual archaeology is a methodological curiosity from Archaeology.
- Structuralism
- Physical law
[edit] External links
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