Questions tagged [scientific-method]
The Scientific Method is meant to answer questions based on observation and experimentation.
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Is it "unscientific" to be sceptical without offering alternative explanations?
Alice has made some anecdotal observations. Through a process of elimination, she proposes a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon, as well as an experiment to validate (or otherwise) her hypothesis. ...
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What constitutes evidence in philosophy?
I have noticed an apparent confusion when posing and answering questions as to what constitutes evidence in philosophy. Especially in scientifically-related areas, I often cite scientific evidence ...
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Is Christianity testable?
In a debate between John Lennox and Peter Atkins on the topic "Can science explain everything?", at minute 44:47 John Lennox claims:
Lennox: "And the major reason why I believe that ...
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Is scientific method entirely based on statistics (statistical inference)?
If I am correct the scientific method is an application of induction to science.
Is the scientific method entirely based on statistics (statistical inference)? (I guess so, because it makes use of ...
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Does falsificationism claim that all reasoning should be scientific?
Does falsificationism claim that all reasoning should be scientific? I don't think much of philosophy is falsifiable. Does that mean we should abandon it? Should we believe that 'love' doesn't exist, ...
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Can Kuhn's theory outlined in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions be applied to sociology? If not, what are the implications of this for sociology
Can Kuhn's theory outlined in 'The Structure of Scientific Revolutions' be applied to sociology? If not, what are the implications of this for sociology?
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What criteria determines if a proposition is mathematical or empirical?
It seems that there is a distinction between mathematical vs empirical statements.
For example, consider the proposition “All even numbers greater than two are a sum of two prime numbers.” This ...
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Causation in physics
Electromagnetic radiation phenomena exhibit a temporal asymmetry: we observe radiation coherently diverging from a radiating source, such the light emitted by a star, but we do not observe radiation ...
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My scales has been accurate for the past year. I weigh something today. Should I assume that the measurement is accurate? If so, why?
My scales has been accurate for the past year. I weigh something today using my scales and it says that it weighs 1kg. Should I assume that the measurement is accurate? If so, why?
Here is the ...
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Does Intelligent Design fulfill the necessary criteria to be recognized as a scientific theory?
I am seeking a comprehensive and rigorous analysis of the concept of Intelligent Design (ID) in order to determine whether it meets the essential requirements to be considered a scientific theory. I ...
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How is scientific realism not an example of the fallacy of the converse?
Firstly, to be clear, I'm not trying to say that science is all nonsense or not useful or anything of the sort, since that's obviously not the case. If nothing else, it's incredibly useful for making ...
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A Theory That Explains Everything Explains Nothing
The title of the question - A Theory That Explains Everything Explains Nothing - is said to be a quotation attributed to philosopher of science Karl Popper, but there's no consensus on whether he ...
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Is the implication that making consistently bad decisions must be intentional a logical fallacy?
This is the argument:
If someone makes consistently bad decisions, then it must be intentional, because if you were to make decisions at random, some of them would be good.
At first, I found this ...
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Loops in logic and reasoning
While studying science I have come across many times loops in logic.for example in survival of the fittest who is fit~who survives and who survives~who is fit.
My question is how to deal with these ...
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Is there a way to tell if something is science versus pseudoscience?
Is there a litmus test to know whether something is science or pseudoscience?
There are many things which is quite ambiguous like ayurveda, homeopathy, psychology, biology, etc...
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speculative deductive reasoning
Is hypothetico-deductive reasoning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypothetico-deductive_model and speculative deductive reasoning same ?
(speculative deductive reasoning- WE arrive at the explanans ...
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When do we need an alternative explanation for statistically unlikely events?
When do we need an alternative explanation for statistically unlikely events?
I ask because I am interested in miracles: is an extremely unlikely event enough to warrant the claim that something is ...
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Is finding data to fit a hypothesis unscientific? [closed]
It seems to me that many people find observations/data in order to fit the hypothesis or to prove the conclusion of their arguments. In one example, one might regard taking a set of lab data and going ...
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Is there a biological description of "chakras" or is the concept of "chakras" mere pseudoscience?
It is widely claimed that we have many chakras(7 major chakras) situated at different locations along the spinal cord. Each of the chakras is said to be associated with certain energy channels, the ...
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Is the observer (a person) embedded in the physical model?
During my studies of physics, I noticed that the discussion of a physical theory includes the discussion of the interaction between the observer (the person who makes the experiments) and the observed ...
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Does Foucault's "power-knowledge" contradict the scientific method?
I am trying to understand Foucault’s power-knowledge concept.
It seems that Foucault viewed knowledge not as an understanding of an objective reality but a way to exert power? (1)
It seems that one ...
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Science, where is the difference between law and principle?
Theories contain laws, definitions, explain and predict aspects of nature.
A law in itself does not explain, but only reflects cause-effect relationships of empirical data (usually in the form of a ...
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How philosophers reason about closeness of one theory to the other theory (approximation, learnability, discovery of theory)?
Some theory is tuple of set of axioms (including ones that are statements about data), set of inference rules and set of already deduced theorems (statements) in it. Theory can be discovered by human ...
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Is there a proof that we can't prove a physical theory?
I am thinking of physical theories (e.g. Newtonian Mechanics) as axiomatic systems. We have a list of axioms and from there we can derive theorems, make predictions etc. If the prediction don't agree ...
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How should Feyerabend's "Anything goes" be interpreted?
Paul Feyerabend, in his response to supposed methodologies used in science (falsification, research programs, normal science and paradigm revolutions, etc.) in general and of Imre Lakatos' research ...
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How does science treat supernatural claims?
The following claim X,
Something had a round trip from the Earth to the Mars within 1 second
might be treated by science as a supernatural claim because it violates the natural law (i.e. speed limit ...
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Inhowfar is scientific inquiry modeled on the interrogation of witches?
(Carolyn) Merchant sees proof in the link between persecution of witches and development of modern science in the work of Francis Bacon, one of the reputed father of the new scientific method, showing ...
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What is the name of the idea that knowledge is dependent on past experience?
What would you call the idea that theories and knowledge more generally is merely the product of our past interactions with their associated elements? For example, if I were to let go of a ball, one ...
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how can one distinguish between disorder and the supernatural?
Many strange things happen to us when we are asleep.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Out-of-body_experience
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk
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Does Bayesian epistemology solve Hume’s problem of induction?
Or, does it just sidestep it? Or, is it just completely unrelated to it? I’m having trouble seeing what the connection might be. It seems to me that Bayesians solve it by saying, take:
Your prior ...
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A question about the Ludwing Boltzmann idea of a scientific theory expressed in the book "On the significance of theories(1890)"
I don't understand a passage in which the great physicist Ludwig Boltzmann , talking about his epistemological point of view, says
I am of the opinion that the task of a theory consists in
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Is it possible to have a scientific review of a method if the author doesn't have direct experience of it?
It seems like it is possible to conduct scientific research without actually getting close to the sample/specimen. However, what if the "sample" of the research is a method? For example, ...
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References on philosophical aspects of experimental design
I am an engineer working in molecular neuroscience field, hence getting exposure in both solving practical problems (how to image fish brain) and molecular bio questions (do neurons X connect to ...
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Is faith required to believe any axiomatic assumption the scientific method is built upon?
It's my understanding that the scientific method builds upon certain axiomatic assumptions, such as uniformitarianism and the principle of induction. Is faith required to believe these axiomatic ...
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To what extent does a hypothesis have to be testable to be regarded as scientific?
In the vein of verificationism and related to problems of falsifiability as per Karl Popper, I ask the following:
Let's say hypothesis X is proposed in order to account for a certain set of observable ...
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Why are theories of Greek philosophers so ineffectual?
The philosophy of science is to explain many natural phenomena with simple and least number of axioms(=hypothesis).
As Albert Einstein writes in his book, The Evolution of Physics at page number 56:
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What's the role of logic in logical positivism?
I'm reading up on a bit of the ideas of logical positivism. It seems that the main components were the distinction of synthetic and analytic statements, and the verification principle. Without giving ...
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Should scientist be free to research anything they want? [closed]
Should scientists be free to research whatever they want, assuming it does not harm/hurt anyone or animals.
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A concept which "shows" why are we limited by speed of light?
These are my thoughts about the above:
So, lets say at a given time t, I am in a room, and it has a state, which describes all the info about that state. Assume for simplicity that the room and its ...
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Why is it valid to ponder if unexplained phosphine on Venus may have an biological source?
(This is my first question here and I apologize and can edit if it's out of place or formed improperly or has other issues.)
The September 20, 2020 news of phosphine found in the clouds on Venus has ...
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Scientific inquiry not using the 5-step method
As a result of my recent interest in the field of epistemology, I read that there is no such thing as a unique scientific method.
However, during my medical studies I had been told that every ...
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Top-down vs bottom-up approaches in science?
I am a student of a natural science but very interested in philosophy. During my studies, I have noted a perceived difference in how various disciplines approach the explanation of data they obtain. I ...
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Why a theory is still used after proven wrong?
When a new theory is introduced and predicts phenomena that the previous theory couldn't should the previous theory be abandoned? For example Einstein's Special Relativity. We still use Newtonian ...
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When dependance exists between two quantities?
Suppose we have two quanitities X and Y and we try to find out if a third quantity Z depends on them.
1st case Changing the X holding Y constant doesn't change Z.
2nd case Changing the Y holding X ...
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Can the scientific method ever disprove Magic and Miracles (Simulated)?
I have seen the idea behind this question before but I don’t think it was well formulated. Here is my attempt to ponder on reality based on Plato's “Myth of the Cave” and show how valid it still is.
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Is the "SAID principle" science?
Within sports science the SAID principle asserts that the human body adapts specifically to imposed demands.
For example lifting heavy weights make you better at lifting heavy weights, whereas running ...
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Methodological universalities in Physics
Is there any methodological characteristic universal in Physics?
Even if some branches of Physics lose their reproducibility, their experimental testing, their deterministic predictivity isn't some ...
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Relation of reproducibility and the lack of contigencies with the scientific method
What is the relation of reproducibility and the lack of contigencies with the scientific method?
Quantum mechanics and Statistical physics/mechanics are vurnerable/suspectible to contigencies. We ...
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Epistemology, Scientific Method and Formal Theory, Economics
Why is Economics considered not to apply the scientific method in its pure form, nor develop scientific theories and how so?
Trade and Government policies(For political economics/positive political ...
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Can a data-driven scientific method produce new knowledge?
Let us classify the state of knowledge into four simple categories: what do we know (known knowns)? What are the limitations of what we know (known unknowns)? What is our degree of certainty about ...
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