PERCEPTION OF SCIENCE

Perception of Science

Perception of Science

Question 1

Introduction

For those who explain developments in science, it is often essential to understand and communicate what it is that makes scientific inquiry distinctive. Science is different from other forms of investigation, such as philosophy or mathematics, though it often borrows from these and other disciplines. Traditionally, explaining what makes science unique involved explaining what was often described as the scientific method. This implies that there is a clearly defined set of procedures or strategies that distinguish scientific reasoning from other modes of inquiry. However, in recent years, those who write on the nature of science have realized that things are far more complicated and nuanced than originally thought. While it is clear that there are a variety of goals, methods, and practices that many scientists embrace, most commentators have come to treat the idea that there is a tidy, straightforward set of principles defining scientific method as a myth. To understand this, it will help to consider key historical events that ushered in modern scientific thought (Physics, 1998).

Discussion

Few Method to Know in Scientific Method

Inductive Method

The idea that scientific method involves inductive reasoning goes back at least to Aristotle, and was given a heavy emphasis by Francis Bacon and John Stuart Mill. Inductive reasoning takes different forms. For example, it is to be found in the fashioning of statistical generalizations, in the Bayesian assignment of probabilities to hypotheses, and in the reasoning involved in moving from data to hypotheses in the hypothetico-deductive method.

The most popular inductive approach to scientific method is sometimes called naive inductivism. According to this account of method, science begins by securing observed facts, which are collected in a theory-free manner. These facts provide a firm base from which the scientist reasons upward to hypotheses, laws, or theories. The reasoning involved takes the form of enumerative induction and proceeds in accordance with some governing principle of inductive reasoning. As its name suggests, enumerative induction is a form of argument in which the premises enumerate several observed cases from which a conclusion is drawn, typically in the form of an empirical generalization. However, enumerative induction can also take the form of a prediction about something in the future or a retrodiction about something in the past (Arstechnica, 2012). The governing principle for an enumerative induction to a generalization can be stated informally as follows: “If a proportion of As have been observed under appropriate conditions to possess property B, then infer the same proportion of all As have property B.” This inductive principle can be taken to underwrite the establishment of statistical generalizations.

Hypothetico-Deductive Method

The most popular account of method in science is the hypothetico-deductive method, which has been the method of choice in the natural sciences for more than 150 years. The method has come to assume hegemonic status in the behavioural sciences, which have often placed a heavy emphasis on testing hypotheses in terms of their predictive success. Relatedly, the use of traditional statistical significance test procedures is often embedded in a hypothetico-deductive ...