The Scientific Method Defined

THE METHOD:

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ENDORSEMENT:

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DEFINITION:

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"The Scientific Method" as we know it today has evolved over many centuries. We should, however, recognize that it is so basic that man world-wide has used it in some form unknowingly since the beginning.

We use The Scientific Method, in some form or degree, from early life on.

In Learning All the Time: How Small Children Begin to Read, Write, Count, and Investigate the World, Without Being Taught (1989), John Holt writes:

"Children are born passionately eager to make as much sense as they can of things around them. The process by which children turn experience into knowledge is exactly the same, point for point, as the process by which those whom we call scientists make scientific knowledge.

Children observe, they wonder, they speculate, and they ask themselves questions. They think up possible answers, they make theories, they hypothesize, and then they test theories by asking questions or by further observations or experiments or reading. Then they modify the theories as needed, or reject them, and the process continues.

This is what in “grown-up” life is called the --- capital S, --- capital M, "Scientific Method". It is precisely what these little guys start doing as soon as they are born."

Children often have the assistance of “parent review” in their elementary usage of the method. When scientists use The Scientific Method in a more systematic manner, peer review of their findings is an important stage in the process.

In a similar elementary way, our forefathers used this basic method in their efforts to survive and thrive. Many authors point out that ancient artisans applied the method unknowingly in developing the technology of their trades. Muller (1943) reports George H. Meade described The Scientific Method as “only the evolutionary process grown self-conscious.” The key is “grown self-conscious.” The Scientific Method only started to gain great importance when the value of active and critical testing was understood and the cycle of observation and experimentation, principle and theory, acceptance and testing had at last been established (Anthony 1948).

The Encyclopedia Britannica (1970) states,

"Scientific method is a collective term denoting the various processes by the aid of which the sciences are built up. "

Nourse (1969) gives this picture of The Scientific Method:

"There is no magic in such a method of finding an answer to a problem. Indeed, it is so simple and logical that all of us, scientists or not, use it to some degree or other every day of our lives in solving everyday problems.

It is the time-tested method of telling truth from nonsense and proving it. As such, it is the method that has been used in discovering virtually everything we know about our universe and the way in which it works. "

But if the scientific method is so simple and logical, why was it such a staggering idea when it first appeared? Probably because it was such a complete reversal of the way ancient scientists and philosophers had done things for centuries. Before the scientific method was devised, these men started with conclusions they had come up with on the basis of meditation, casual observation, and sheer guesswork.

It took centuries to discover that this was a blind alley, producing more and more wrong answers all the time. . . . It was not until the scientific method became firmly established that the knowledge of science began to grow and that our understanding of the laws of nature began to expand.

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