We explain what a method is, and what are some of the most used. The emergence of the scientific method, and its criticisms.
What is a method?
The method is that process used systematicallyguiding our practice based on previously established principles.
The scientific method is that used by the entire scientific community in order to guarantee a high degree of veracity in its procedures and investigationsare norms that guarantee that a process and/or result is scientific and not a mere belief.
- See also: Inductive method
Bacon's scientific method
Although there were several great minds of the past who made contributions to the development of a scientific method (the ancient Greeks with logic, for example), Francis Bacon (English philosopher, considered the father of empiricism) is undoubtedly the first to list in a clear and concise manner the steps necessary to carry out a scientific method.
- As a first step, we have the observation. Man faces nature, what surrounds him, as something foreign or different from him. This is achieved through the senses. After a precise and detailed observation, we will proceed to carry out a inductive process.
- The induction It is that process by which we extract general characteristics and with universal claims, based on the observation of particular events. These events must be repeated in various conditions, in a large number of cases, etc.
- Once this is done, we can outline a hypothesis to explain the events that occurred, and this must be proven through the experimentationto proceed with the conclusions.
Once this is done and if it is not refuted, we will be faced with true scientific knowledge according to Bacon's model, or the “classical positivist.” Physics is the maximum exponent of the positivist modelhaving as its main weapon the laws discovered by Isaac Newton.
- Steps of the scientific method
Karl Popper's criticism of the method
However, this model It has some very important limitations.. One of the harshest and most overwhelming criticisms was directed by Karl Popper through falsificationism.
We will not dwell too much on Popper's ideas on this occasion, but it will suffice to say that he flatly rejected the inductionsince it is logically impossible from singular facts to discover universal truths; however, the reverse is possible.
From this it follows that theories are not definitively “verifiable”, but are “corroborated” for a time until knowledge appears that overturns this and thus ensures the continued advancement of science.
These models of scientific method They must be made more complex in the human sciencessince although they are very useful in the natural sciences, it is not possible to continuously experiment with individuals. This is explained by the preponderance of natural sciences for the development of a scientific method.
How scientific knowledge is produced, under what circumstances and how the scientific method is constituted is the task of epistemology. In relation to the method of science, we can highlight the tasks of Imre Lakatos and Thomas Khun.
Other methods
In turn, There are different methods within the scientific method. The hypothetico-deductive method, the historical method, the sociological method, the analytical method, the hermeneutic method, the logical-deductive method, and many more. This will depend on the branch of science that needs it, although they can (and usually) use more methods that are specific to the branch.
However, there are more methods beyond the scientific method. For example, the contraceptive methods are forms of birth control and vary from prophylactics to birth control pills.
