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The "scientific method" is arguably the most important invention in the history of mankind. But who actually invented it?

2006-12-02 14:38:10 · 4 answers · asked by dondo 1 in Arts & Humanities History

4 answers

Strictly speaking, no one person invented the scientific method. It would be more correct to say it evolved over a period of time as a result of the work of many early scientists. Two of the earliest and most important were Galileo and Copernicus. galileo pioneered the idea of making experiments to test his ideas. Copernicus was important because he challenged the old (Ptolemaic) model of the solar system and, like Galileo, based his ideas on observations, rather than on tradition.

If you want to pick one person as the "inventor of scientific method" it would be Roger Bacon (1600s. He suggested the idea that experiment and theory went hand in hand and could be organized systematically to solve problems.--the modern scientific method in rudimentary form.

The great Isaac Newton coultd be considered the one who completed the process of developing early scientific method. He combined observation, experiment, and mathematical theory in much the way we do today.

But "scientific method" is not just the basic sequence we usually think of:
Formulate a hypothesis from existing theory.
Figure out how to test the hypothesis by observation or experiment.
Perform the observation/experiment
Analyze the data
Based on the results, develop explanations (theory)
(and then the cycle starts over).

Today, scientific method is a complex and highly flexible system of thiinking about the world around us--and that basic method has been adapted to study a wide variety of phonomena from the stars to the way biosystems interact to the human body to our own social systems.

The crucial test for any idea to be regarded as scientific is this: can you test the idea? And, in the process of testing, can you show that the idea is wrong? In other words, your idea (hypothesis) must be something which can be checked by expiriment or observation and be such that the test will show if it is incorrect. Not all ideas are scientific--because they can't be tested andchecked to see if they are wrong (falsified). That does not mean the ideas are not real or worthwhile--it just means they are a different kind of idea. For example, the idea that it is "right" to be honest certainly is a good one--but you can't test it's moral validity scientifically.

2006-12-02 15:02:41 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 5 1

Who Invented The Scientific Method

2016-12-17 14:15:35 · answer #2 · answered by hayakawa 4 · 0 0

Who Created The Scientific Method

2016-09-28 21:56:56 · answer #3 · answered by ? 4 · 0 0

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Sort of. But not quite. It was actually first invented by either the Egyptians or the Greeks. The Egyptians only applied it to a few disciplines, and the Greeks considered it just one possible way of gaining knowledge. And since there was so much competition between different philosophers in Greece, what was important to one was not important to others. So things tended not to get universally adopted. What Muslim scholars did was to spend more thought on what methods actually work, then formalize them and adopt them as a group (rather than as individuals). They took ideas that were already known, decided that empiricism was the best method among them, and made sure that every serious scholar knew about it. Which is not to disparage people like al-Haytam in any way. It is well known that scholarship in the Islamic world flourished in all areas while Europe languished in the Dark Ages. Without contact with Muslim scholars, it is possible that the Rennaissance would either have never happened, or would have been delayed centuries more. All scientific progress is made by taking what is already known and moving it forward. In the Muslim world this process continued, while in Europe it stopped for nearly a thousand years.

2016-03-27 03:57:15 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

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RE:
Who invented the scientific method?
The "scientific method" is arguably the most important invention in the history of mankind. But who actually invented it?

2015-08-06 06:39:17 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0 0

Hey Dondo,

"The enunciation of a scientific method by Roger Bacon in the thirteenth century described a repeating cycle of observation, hypothesis, experimentation and the need for independent verification. This view, itself inspired by an arab alchemical tradition not endorsed by christian ecclesiastical authority, led to Francis Bacon (in 1620 with the New Organon) laying down some methods for identifying causation between phenomena. With these articulations, unfounded speculation and analogical arguments began to be replaced by consistent and logical methods of investigation." 1

2006-12-02 14:48:20 · answer #6 · answered by BuyTheSeaProperty 7 · 2 2

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