The Scientific Method: as a Source of Human Understanding

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The Scientific Methodas a Source of Human
Understanding
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Learning Intentions

• By the end of the lesson you should be able to
• Give a definition of the Scientific method of
  understanding the universe.
• 2) Describe the four stage process used in the
  scientific method.
• 3) State at least two strengths and two weakness
• 4) Look at the different terminology used by the
  Scientific method of understanding the universe.

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Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
The scientific method was made popular by Francis
Bacon a Christian who thought
Science a book of Gods works
and
The Bible a book of Gods words
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What is the Scientific Method?

• The scientific method is based on evidence and
  experiments
• Based on the desire to challenge and evaluate all
  truth claims
• Pre-supposes the world is intelligible and
  orderly.

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So

• 1. Observe some aspect of the universe.

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2. Invent a tentative description, called a
hypothesis, that is consistent with what you have
observed.
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EXPERIMENT
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VERIFICATION
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Scientific people

• Observe things
• Come up with a theory
• Do a few experiments to test the theory
• Look at the results of the experiment to see if
  the theory was true

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The Stages

1. Observation Finding something in nature that
   you want to find answers to.
2. Hypothesis An educated guess as to what is
   going on in the observable phenomenon.
3. Experiment Controlled examination of evidence
   and testing of the hypothesis.
4. Verification Results from the experiment can
   help to reinforce the hypothesis, which can
   continue to be examined and verified by others,
   or proved to be false, in which case you start
   again. This process of trying to find fault with
   a theory to make sure it is more reliable is
   called falsification.

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Observation Mr Maclean said something daft
Hypothesis All good looking people are stupid
Experiments Ask all the other good looking people in the class questions to test their intelligence
Verifications Most good looking people were able to answer correctly, therefore, all good looking people are not stupid hypothesis not proven
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Strengths

1. Scientific Method should be rational, and
   examined in a controlled and objective way
   trustworthy
2. Theories are continually tested and modified, so
   we know they are the best they can be
3. It provides us with a way of understanding our
   world and predicting events with this we can
   progress in science and technology

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In what ways is the Scientific method limited?

• It is fallible
• Limited objectivity
• Scientist is human
• Based on assumption
• Contains guesswork
• Reliability
• Tentative

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Weaknesses

• It is NOT objective scientists are humans with
  ambitions, personalities, and who need to
  INTERPRET data
• It will NEVER give us 100 proof because it is a
  process of INDUCTION.
• It can only tell us about the processes behind
  events it cannot give us information on the
  reason behind why things are the way they are.

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Weaknesses (cont.)

• It cannot talk about anything other than physical
  phenomena issues of morality, philosophy and
  religion are outwith scientific enquiry
• Scientific method is subject to a number of
  possible flaws which could lead to the evidence
  being inaccurate or incomplete

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A theory is only considered correct at that
moment in time based on the evidence available.
It can be changed. Sometimes when we collect
out data our senses can deceive us.
But remember
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• Why is it inaccurate to say that science proves
  things?

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• In the scientific method, things are never really
  proven, only supported.
• (Dont tell the science dept!!!)
• Some unknown piece of evidence might still be out
  there which could change the theory supported.

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Deduction

• - if x applies, then y follows.
• - for example, you cant see light waves, you
  only know theyre there when they light something
  else up.

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Reduction

• science reduces things to the bits theyre made
  up of.
• - e.g., humans are reduced to the chemicals that
  make us up

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Inference

• learning facts about particular things and
  applying them more generally.
• - e.g., most of the cats Ive seen have fur,
  therefore, all cats have fur.

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Verifiability

• Looking at how accurate the hypothesis is.
• Falsifiability
• Looking at how inaccurate the hypothesis is.

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Origin / Context

• It is a method used to understand the world, not
  a mountain of facts.
• Science cannot provide certain (100) proof
  just the best working theories
• Science is from the Latin scientia, which means
  knowledge
• First developed by Francis Bacon 17th C
• It is a trial and error process
• Allows us to systematically examine the processes
  behind natural phenomena, and make predictions
  and laws regarding these.

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In summary

• Science makes progress by challenging the
  accepted views of things, testing them out and
  suggesting new ways of seeing things based on the
  evidence gathered.
• Where the evidence supports a hypothesis, the
  hypothesis is verified.
• Where it does not, the hypothesis is
  falsified/rejected

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• For something to be scientific it has to be able
  to be verified or falsified
• Science uses models to help explain concepts and
  get a mental picture of them.
• Models can help predict what might happen if
  something is changed.
• Science should be objective-ideas should be based
  only on the evidence found and not a pre-existing
  belief.

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