Between the Main features of the scientific method We find that it uses observation as a starting point, formulates questions and answers, requires verification, is objective, logical or detritive and generates refutationable conclusions.
He scientific method Is a set of steps that is developed systematically and logically for the production of knowledge, in the context of science.
In order to reach scientific knowledge, all stages must be rigorously developed: observation, hypothesis development, experimentation, verification, theory and establishment of a law or new knowledge.
Greek philosophers Socrates , Plato Y Aristotle Were the first to propose a logical and mathematical method.
In order to study the stars they went to the observation, the data collection and the subsequent analysis of them, during different periods, at different times.
Between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Leonardo Da Vinci, Nicholas Copernicus, Johannes Kepler and Galileo Galilei defined some rules for obtaining knowledge that included observation and verification through repetition of facts.
But it was French Rene Descartes , Who at the beginning of the seventeenth century presented his work Method Discourse In which he defined the stages of the scientific method governed by reason and in search of truth, completely nullifying superstition in the search for knowledge.
From the law or new knowledge it is possible to start a new research, either to complement it or to refute the thesis.
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Characteristics of the most outstanding scientific method
1- Use observation as a starting point
The starting point of the scientific method is observation of facts. To know the reality, the scientist needs to have a contemplative and patient attitude. Through observation it is possible to plumb a hypothesis.
Numerous observational techniques exist that allow to enumerate, to describe and to extract initial conclusions on aspects of the reality.
Based on the data found, premises are stated and through their analysis it is possible to define a hypothesis, that is, an assumption that will serve to initiate the investigation.
2- Formulate questions and answers
From the data that are obtained with the observation, they generate premises formulated after the constant and systematic action of asking and answering.
Already Socrates proposed with his dialogues through the technique of maieutics, extract a truth from the curious dialogue.
To formulate a hypothesis, the scientist asks questions and answers systematically seeking to establish cause-effect relationships in aspects of reality.
These relationships allow you to define the working hypothesis.
3- Requires verification
The scientist elaborates conjectures based on the knowledge acquired at the theoretical level or through observation and later seeks to verify them in reality by means of various methodologies.
The verification, in the scientific method, is to verify on the reality the hypothesis that has resulted after the exercise of the observation and the formulation of questions.
4- It's objective
The scientific method only accepts answers of the reality, in this sense it does not intervene the point of view of the scientist and much less the community where the investigation is developed.
In his attempt to reach knowledge he seeks to find a factual truth, that is, directly from facts and does so by means of quantitative methods to obtain data taken, usually in the laboratory.
The field work that is done to collect the data is previously designed and responds to a theoretical orientation or framework.
The scientific method seeks to find fixed rules to discover truths, not simply to defend theses or expose new theories.
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5 - It is logical
The scientist develops in a logical and rigorous way the stages of the scientific method. It is impossible to generate knowledge without exhausting all the stages of the scientific method.
From an idea the scientist goes to reality to check it and generate new ideas, in this sense responds to its purely rational character.
The formulation of the hypothesis requires the work of observation and the systematic formulation of questions and answers; Once designed, the hypothesis must be verified in reality and if it is possible to do so, a theory is generated that can later be refuted.
6- Systematic Experimentation
When we want to test an idea in reality, we establish methods of collecting logical information that take the scientist, again and again from theory to practice and from practice to theory.
In this sense, the scientific method is also self-corrective because through experimentation they are affirming or generating new premises.
7- It is deductive
The scientific method is developed in a deductive way, that is, the scientist establishes inferences or conjectures about the hypothesis in the form of general statements that must be verified on particular aspects of reality.
An investigation carried out in a deductive way interprets reality from theoretical postulates.
Under the guise of a method that is deductive theories can not be considered true but, so far, not refuted.
8- It is rational
An investigation, under the strictness of the scientific method, starts from one idea and concludes with another; Although it goes through reality to verify statements, it always remains on the side of reason.
The scientific method therefore does not accept arguments based on superstition or improvisation.
The ideas that arise after experimentation and verification are grouped and create premises that serve to approve or reject the hypothesis.
This is one of the main characteristics of the scientific method, according to the Method Discourse By René Descartes.
9- Produce reproducible results
The results of the scientific method must be reproduced. The entire community, especially the scientific community, must have access to the results of the method so that knowledge does not stagnate and progress.
The results of scientific research must always be public, for humanity it is a setback to have scientific secrets.
10- Generates refutables conclusions
All law or new knowledge, product of the scientific method, has the property of being refuted. The truths obtained with the application of this method can be controverted by means of the verification of an opposite statement.
It is always possible to orient new research because knowledge is infinite.
References
- Bunge, M. (2014). Science, its method and its philosophy. South American. P.p: 34-56
- Ackoff, R.L. (1962). Scientific method. John Wiley.
- Descartes, R. (1968). Discourse on Method and the Meditations. Penguin UK.
- Beck, Leslie John. "The Method of Descartes."(1954).
- Voss, S. (Ed.). (1993). Essays on the philosophy and science of René Descartes. Oxford University Press on Demand.