Group+5

Group 5: Invention of the Scientific Method -Amanda Hsiung, Chan Lee Chin, Charlene Yeo, Koh Zong Qi, Silvia Sim

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 * The scientific method is the complete method/series of steps of problem solving and decision making for all fields.
 * methodology: 1.observations 2.generation of hypothesis (theories induced from trends that occur in observations) 3. Experimentation to validate or reject hypothesis
 * This process removed blind adherence to tradition from science, and allowed scientists to logically find answers through the use of reason.
 * This method of research is the basis for modern science.

__**Timeline of the Scientific Method **__

 * 1600 BC — An Egyptian medical textbook, the Edwin Smith papyrus, **applies the following components: examination, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis, to the treatment of disease. **


 * 400 BC — In China, Mozi and the School of Names **advocate using one's senses to observe the world ** , and develop the "three-prong method" for testing the truth or falsehood of statements. Mozi believed that people were capable of changing their circumstances and directing their own lives. They could do this by applying their senses to observing the world, and judging objects and events by their causes, their function, and their historical basis. This was the "three-prong method" Mozi recommended for testing the truth or falsehood of statements.


 * 400 BC — Democritus **advocates deductive reasoning through a process of examining the causes of sensory perceptions and drawing conclusions about the outside world. **


 * 320 BC — **First comprehensive documents categorising and subdividing knowledge, dividing knowledge into different areas ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> by Aristotle,(physics, poetry, zoology, logic, rhetoric, politics, and biology). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Aristotle **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">considered that universal truths could be discovered by careful observation of the many particular instances of those truths, a process of reasoning known as induction. **


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">800 AD — **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An early experimental method begins emerging among Muslim chemists beginning with Geber who introduces controlled experiments ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> ; other fields (early Islamic philosophy, theology, law and science of hadith) **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">introduce the methods of citation, peer review and open inquiry leading to development of consensus. **


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1021 — The Iraqi Muslim physicist and scientist Alhazen **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">introduces the experimental method and combines observations, experiments and rational arguments ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> in his Book of Optics to show that his intromission theory of vision is scientifically correct, and that the emission theory of vision supported by Ptolemy and Euclid is wrong


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1025 — The Persian scientist, Abū Rayhān al-Bīrūnī, **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">develops the earliest experimental methods for minerology and mechanics, ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> and is one of the first to conduct elaborate experiments related to astronomical phenomena


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1025 — In The Canon of Medicine, **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Avicenna describes the methods of agreement, difference and concomitant variation which are critical to inductive logic and the scientific method **


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1027 — In The Book of Healing, **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Avicenna criticizes the Aristotelian method of induction, arguing that "it does not lead to the absolute, universal, and certain premises that it purports to provide" ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">, and in its place, **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">develops examination and experimentation as a means for scientific inquir ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> y.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1220-1235 —Robert Grosseteste, an English scholastic philosopher, theologian and the bishop of Lincoln, published his Aristotelian commentaries, which **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">laid out the framework for the proper methods of science ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> . He s **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">upported Aristole's idea of using both inductive and deductive reasoning, while also suggesting that both parts should be verified by experimentation. **


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1265 — Roger Bacon, an English monk, inspired by the writings of Grosseteste, described a scientific method, which he based on a **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">repeating cycle of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and the need for independent verification. ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> He recorded the manner in which he conducted his experiments in precise detail so that others could reproduce and independently test his results.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1327 — Ockham's razor clearly formulated by William of Ockham. Ockham’s razor is the principle that "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" and the conclusion thereof, that the **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">simplest explanation or strategy tends to be the best one ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> . As a logical principle, **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Occam's razor would demand that scientists accept the simplest possible theoretical explanation for existing data. **


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1590 — Controlled experiments performed by Francis Bacon.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1620 — Novum Organum (Francis Bacon) was published. In it, **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">the Baconian method was introduced, consisting of procedures for isolating the form, nature or cause of a phenomenon, employing the method of agreement, method of difference, and method of concomitant variation devised by Avicenna in 1025. ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Bacon attempted to describe a rational procedure for establishing causation between phenomena based on induction.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1637 — A **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Scientific method ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> was suggested by René Descartes in the book ‘Discourse on the Method’. The four precepts were **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1. Filter away all that may be in doubt. 2. Divide difficulties to as small pieces as necessary. 3. Start with the simplest problems. 4. Make Lists, Tables, Diagrams. ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> He was <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">instrumental in bringing mathematical analysis to bear on scientific matters. He believed that as long as you knew the basic laws of the universe, you could deduce anything.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1638 — Galileo's Two New Sciences published, containing two thought experiments, namely Galileo's Leaning Tower of Pisa experiment and Galileo's ship, which are intended to disprove existing physical theories by showing that they have contradictory consequences. Neither the contents of Galileo’s science, nor his methods of study were in keeping with Aristotelian teachings. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Whereas ** **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Aristotle thought that a science should be demonstrated from first principles, Galileo used experiments as a research tool. **


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">1650 — The **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Royal Society was formed **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> . The Royal Society is a learned society for science. It’s primary goals were to organise and view experiments and communicate discoveries to each other. It played an **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">instrumental role in cementing the scientific method **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> (as shown below) due to the influence of Issac Newton (a member and then later on, the president). He implicitly rejected Descartes' emphasis on rationalism in favor of Bacon's empirical approach, and he outlines his four "rules of reasoning" in the Principia:
 * 1) //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We are to admit no more causes of natural things such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances //
 * 2) //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The same natural effects must be assigned to the same causes //
 * 3) //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Qualities of bodies are to be esteemed as universal, //
 * 4) //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Propositions deduced from observation of phenomena should be viewed as accurate until other phenomena contradict them. //
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton's work became a model that other sciences sought to emulate, and **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">his inductive approach formed the basis for much of natural philosophy through the 18th and early nineteenth centuries. **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Some methods of reasoning were later systematized by Mill's method (or Mill's canon), which are five explicit statements of what can be discarded and what can be kept while building a hypothesis. George Boole and William Stanley Jevons also wrote on the principles of reasoning.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1650 — **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Experimental evidence established as the arbiter of truth ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> by the Royal Society


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1665 — **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Repeatability established and approved by the Royal Society. ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> It was required of an experiment or observations before it could be called a scientific experiment.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1665 — **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Scholarly journals established ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> when the French Journal des sçavans and the English Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society first began systematically publishing research results.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1675 — **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Peer review begun ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> . Peer review is the process of subjecting an author's scholarly work, research, or ideas to the scrutiny of others who are experts in the same field.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1739 — David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">argues that the problem of induction is unsolvable. ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> He argued against the two principals of induction:
 * 1) //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">generalising about the properties of a class of objects based on some number of observations of particular instances of that class (for example, the inference that "all swans we have seen are white, and therefore all swans are white," before the discovery of black swans) or //
 * 2) //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">presupposing that a sequence of events in the future will occur as it always has in the past (for example, that the laws of physics will hold as they have always been observed to hold). //
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">He disagreed that conclusions made on pure observations could be certain. Although Hume's skeptical arguments were refuted and ultimately superseded by Immanuel Kant's Critique of Pure Reason in the late 18th century, **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">his arguments continued to have a strong influence for the better part of the 19th century. **


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1753 — **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">First description of a controlled experiment ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> using two identical populations with only one variable.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1812 — The **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">formulation of the Latin-German mixed term Gedankenexperiment (experiment conducted in the thoughts, or thought experiment). ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> It is a proposal for an experiment that would test or illuminate a hypothesis, theory or principle.Given the structure of the proposed experiment, it may or may not be possible to actually perform the experiment and, in the case that it is possible for the experiment to be performed, no intention of any kind to actually perform the experiment in question may exist. The **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">common goal of a thought experiment is to explore the potential consequences of the principle in question. **


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1877-1888 — Charles Sanders Peirce publishes "Illustrations of the Logic of Science", popularizing his trichotomy of Abduction,Deduction and Induction. He **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">explains randomization as a basis for statistical inference. ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> He also **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">outlined an objective way to test the truth of putative knowledge that uses both Deduction and Induction. ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> Peirce proposed the basic schema for hypothesis-testing that prevails today. Extracting the theory of inquiry from classical logic, he refined it with the early development of symbolic logic to address problems about scientific reasoning.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1885 — C. S. Peirce with Joseph Jastrow **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">invents blinded, randomized experiments, which become established in psychology. ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> Randomization plays a key role in scientific method by reducing bias by equalising other factors that have not been explicitly accounted for in the experimental design.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1897 — Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">proposes the use of multiple hypotheses to assist in the design of experiments. **


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1926 — **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Randomized design popularized ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> and analyzed by Ronald Fisher (following Peirce). <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">It is for studying the effects of one primary factor without the need to take other [|nuisance variables](random variables) into account.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1934 — **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Falsifiability as a criterion for evaluating new hypotheses ** **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">is popularized ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> by Karl Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery. According to Popper, scientific theory should make predictions (preferably predictions that are not made by a competing theory) which can be tested and the theory rejected if these predictions are shown not to be correct. He also argued that a good hypothesis must be, in principle, falsifiable and that inductive inferences were inevitably logically unsound, and that experiments that aimed at "verification" or "confirmation" of hypotheses provided at best weak evidence; instead he argued that scientific experiments should be designed as attempts at falsifying bold hypotheses. by attempting to disprove predictions derived from the hypotheses by deductive reasoning, a philosophy that he described as critical rationalism. Following Peirce and others, he argued that science would best progress using critical rationalism as its primary emphasis.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1937 — **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Controlled placebo trial ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">. A **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">placebo **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> is a medical intervention. For example, in one common placebo procedure, a patient is given an inert(chemically inactive) //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">sugar pill //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">, told that it may improve his/her condition, but not told that it is in fact inert. Such an intervention may cause the patient to believe the treatment will change his/her condition; and this belief does indeed sometimes have a therapeutic effect causing the patient's condition to improve. This phenomenon is known as the **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">placebo effect **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> . It is now widely used in medicine, and has been studied for medical conditions such as Anxiety disorders, Depression, and Sexual dysfunction in women.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1946 — **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">First computer simulation. ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> Computer simulation is a computer program or network of computers <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">that imitates a particular experiment. For example, an experiment on the effects of weather on a plant can be simulated. Computer simulations have become a useful part of mathematical modelling of many natural systems in physics, astrophysics, chemistry and biology, human systems in economics,psychology, and social science and in the process of engineering new technology, to gain insight into the operation of those.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">1950 — **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Double blind experiment. ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px;"> It is a scientific experiment <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">where some of the people involved are prevented from knowing certain information that might lead to unconscious bias on their part, invalidating the results. For example, when asking consumers to compare the tastes of different brands of a product, the identities of the brands of food should be concealed and made unknown to the consumers — otherwise consumers will generally tend to prefer the brand they are familiar with, thus affecting the results of the test/experiment. Blind experiments are an important tool of the scientific method, in many fields of research — from medicine, forensics, psychology and social sciences, to basic sciences such as physics and biology and also, market research. In some disciplines, such as drug testing, blind experiments are considered essential.

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 19px;">**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Aristotle **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Aristotle was born in 384 BC and died in 322 BC. He was Greek philosopher and scientist whose thought determined the course of Western intellectual history for two millenia. He was considered one of the 'Big Three' of ancient Greek Philosophy. He was the son of the court physician to Amyntas III, grandfather of [|Alexander the Great]. In 367 he became a student at the [|Academy of Plato] in Athens and remained there for 20 years. After Plato's death, he returned to Macedonia, where he became tutor to the young Alexander the Great. In 335 he founded his own school in Athens-the Lyceum. His intellectual range was vast, covering most of the sciences and many of the arts. He worked in physics, chemistry, biology, zoology, and botany; in psychology, political theory, and ethics; in logic and metaphysics; and in history, literary theory, and rhetoric. He invented the study of formal logic, devising for it a finished system, known as syllogistic, that was considered the sum of the discipline until the 19th century. His work in zoology, both observational and theoretical, also was not surpassed until the 19th century. His ethical and political theory, especially his conception of the ethical virtues and of happiness continue to exert great influence in philosophical debate. He wrote prolifically; his major surviving works include the [|Organon] and De Anima.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Charles Sanders Peirce **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Charles Sanders Peirce was born on September 10, 1839 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and is a reknowned American Philosopher, logician, mathematician and scientist. Peirce was educated as a chemist and employed as a scientist for 30 years, who contributed greatly to mathematics, logics(reasoning), and semiotics(the study of signs, signification and communications). He made major contributions to logic, but "logic" for him encompassed much of that which is now called epistemology and philosophy of science. He saw logic as the formal branch of semiotics, of which he is a founder. As early as 1886 he saw that logical operations could be carried out by electrical switching circuits, an idea used decades later to produce digital computers. Charles Sanders Peirce was the son of Sarah Hunt Mills and [|Benjamin Peirce], a professor of astronomy and mathematics at Harvard University, perhaps the first serious research mathematician in America. Peirce suffered from his late teens through the rest of his life from something then known as "facial neuralgia", a very painful nervous/facial condition, which would today be diagnosed as [|trigeminal neuralgia]. A biography by Joseph Brent says that when in the throes of its pain "he was, at first, almost stupefied, and then aloof, cold, depressed, extremely suspicious, impatient of the slightest crossing, and subject to violent outbursts of temper." Its consequences may have led to the social isolation which made his life's later years so tragic. He also spent about the last two decades of his life in poverty, unable to afford heat in winter, and eating stale bread donated by the local baker. Peirce died destitute in Milford, Pennsylvania on April 19 1914, twenty years before his widow.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Francis Bacon **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Francis Bacon (1561-1626) was a famous English essayist, lawyer, philosopher and statesman. Bacon was an intelligent, ambitious, arrogant, cold and calculating man. Even though he had few scientific credentials, he is widely know as the father of the empiricism and of experimentation in Science. Bacon was originally a politician, first elected to Parliament in 1584, but in 1621 found guilty of accepting bribes, thereby ending his political carreer. Retiring to Gorhambury, he devoted himself to writing and scientific work. In 1620, he published <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Novum Organum // <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">, where the Baconian method was introduced, consisting of procedures for isolating the form, nature or cause of a phenomenon, employing the method of agreement, method of difference, and method of concomitant variation devised by Avicenna in 1025. He believed that previous natural philosophers had acquired information through wrong methods: "The entire fabric of human reason which we employ in the inquisition of nature is badly put together and built up, and like some magnificent structure without foundation." <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To his mind, prevailing systems of thought relied mostly on fanciful guessing and the mere citing of authorities and previous works to establish truths of science. Bacon pointed out the four main causes that obstructed the path of correct scientific reasoning which was prevalent in medieval methods: <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Bacon died on 9 April 1626 from pneumonia contracted whilst testing his theory of the preservative and insulating properties of snow.
 * 1) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Idols of the Tribe: Tendency to perceive more order and regularity in systems than it truly exists due to adherence of preconceived notions. (e.g. Ptolemy's idea that God's creation is perfect; and circular motions were the most perfect kind of motion, hence the crystalline spheres around earth moved as such)
 * 2) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Idols of the Cave: Weaknesses in reasoning due to particular personalities, likes and dislikes of the individual. (e.g. like how Tycho Brahe was unable to accept Copernicus' theory of a heliocentric universe because of deeply rooted ideas of a geocentric Earth even though he had found data to prove the Aristotelian-Ptolemy system partially wrong)
 * 3) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Idols of the Marketplace: Confusions of the use of language and taking some words to a different level, altering their original meaning. (Aristotle took the BIble too literally, coming to the false conclusion that the earth was fixed and the heavens were moving like described in biblical passages, when the passages actually meant it in a more figurative sense, probably meaning that God had ultimate control of the universe)
 * 4) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Idols of the Theatre: Adherence to academic dogma and not asking questions about the world. (Claudius Galen published that humans only have 16 teeth and people blindly believed, not even bothering to count their own teeth!)

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Galileo ** **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Galilei **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Galileo (1564-1642) was the first astronomer to make full use of the telescope, observing the craters of the moon and the satellites of Jupiter. His open advocacy of Copernican cosmology led, however, to a clash with the Catholic Counter-Reformation, and he spent his final years under house arrest. Galileo Galilei was born in 1564 at Pisa, Dutchy of Florence (present-day Italy). Galileo began his studies in medicine at the University of Pisa, but soon dropped out, preferring to study mathematics with [|Ostilio Ricci]. In 1592 he obtained the chair of mathematics at Padua(city in northern Italy), and began working on the inclined plane and the pendulum. Around 1604, he began working on astronomy in order to lecture on the new star that had appeared that year. In 1609, Galileo heard of the telescope while in Venice, and on his return, constructed one for himself. In 1610, Galileo published his telescopic discoveries in [|The Starry Messenger] and dedicated the four satellites of Jupiter that he had discovered to Cosimo II, Grand Duke of Tuscany, naming them 'the Medicean stars'. Galileo famously declared that the Bible teaches how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go, and thus began Galileo's trouble with the Catholic Church. At the order of the Pope, Galileo was then summoned (February 1616) by [|Robert Bellarmino] to be cautioned against speaking out on behalf of the Copernican claim. Rumours, however, quickly began to circulate that Galileo had been condemned and prosecuted. In September 1632, Galileo was summoned to Rome, where he arrived in January 1633. He was charged for heresy and was sentenced to life imprisonment. Galileo spent the rest of his life at home, studying kinematics and mathematics. Pleas for pardons or for medical treatment were refused as well.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Karl Popper **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Karl Popper is generally regarded as one of the greatest philosophers of science of the 20th century. He was born on 28 July 1902. His father was a lawyer and his mum a music lover. He was for a period of time, greatly involved in left-wing politics but left after being disillusioned with it. Popper obtained a primary school teaching diploma in 1925, took a Ph.D. in philosophy in 1928, and qualified to teach mathematics and physics in secondary school in 1929. He articulated his own view of science, and his criticisms of the positivists, in his first work, published under the title [|Logik der Forschung] in 1934. In 1937 Popper took up a position teaching philosophy at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, where he was to remain for the duration of the Second World War. The annexation of Austria in 1938 became the catalyst which prompted him to refocus his writings on social and political philosophy. In 1946 he moved to England to teach at the London School of Economics, and became professor of logic and scientific method at the University of London in 1949. From this point on Popper's reputation and stature as a philosopher of science and social thinker grew enormously, and he continued to write prolifically—a number of his works, particularly The Logic of Scientific Discovery (1959), are now universally recognised as classics in the field. He was knighted in 1965, and retired from the University of London in 1969, though he remained active as a writer, broadcaster and lecturer until his death in 1994.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Sir Isaac Newton
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Isaac Newton was an english phycist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, [|alchemist]and [|theologian]who is considered by many scholars and members of the general public to be one of the most influential men in human history. He was born on 4 January, 1643 in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire. His father was a prosperous farmer, who died three months before Newton was born. His mother remarried and Newton was left in the care of his grandparents. In 1661, he went to Cambridge University where he learnt about mathematics, optics, physics and astronomy. In October 1665, a plague epidemic forced the university to close and Newton returned to Woolsthorpe. The two years he spent there were an extremely fruitful time during which he began to think about gravity. Two years after Newon returned to Cambridge( in 1667), he was appointed second Lucasian professor of mathematics. From the mid-1660s, Newton conducted a series of experiments on the composition of light, discovering that white light is composed of the same system of colours that can be seen in a rainbow and establishing the modern study of optics (or the behaviour of light). In 1704, Newton published 'The Opticks' which dealt with light and colour. In 1687, with the support of his friend the astronomer [|Edmond Halley], Newton published his single greatest work, the 'Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica' ('Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy'). This showed how a universal force, gravity, applied to all objects in all parts of the universe. In 1703, he was elected president of the Royal Society, an office he held until his death. The Royal Society prospered under his presidence as he took his duties very seriously. Newton was a difficult man, prone to depression and often involved in bitter arguments with other scientists, but by the early 1700s he was the dominant figure in British and European science. He died on 31 March 1727 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Rene Descartes **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Rene Descartes (1595-1650) was a famous French mathematician, scientist and philosopher. He was arguably the first major philosopher in the modern era to make a concentrated effort to link deduction and mathematical logic in the correct fashion to research methodology. He is known as the Father of Modern Philosophy and well-known for his principle of doubt: "I think, therefore I am". Descartes was a convinced Copernican and produced a Copernican scientific work called //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The World //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> which he was about to publish in 1634. At the point, however, he learnt of Galileo's being charged of heresy by the Church for teaching Copernicanism, and therefore had it supressed. In 1638 Descartes published a book containing three essays on mathematical and scientific subjects and the //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Discourse on Method. //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Following this, Descartes published a metaphysical work //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Meditations on First Philosophy //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> in 1641. This short work is more metaphysical than scientific, and aimed to establish certain foundations for the sciences. Descartes also produced //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The Principles of Philosophy //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> in 1644, the most complete statement of his mature philosophy and the Cartesian system in general; "Notes against a Program" -- a response to a pamphlet published anonymously by Henricus Regius, critisicing that Regius had shamelessly used unpublished papers of Descartes and had distorted his ideas; and //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Passions of the Soul //<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">. At the invitation of Queen Christina of Sweden, Descartes went to Sweden to give the Queen lessons. Affected by the harsh Swedish climate and lack of sleep, his health deteriorated and finally died from [|pneumonia] he caught when nursing his friend the French ambassador who had pneumonia.

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Roger Bacon **
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Roger Bacon was born in 1220 and died in 1292. He was a English scientist and philosopher. He was educated at Oxford and the University of Paris and joined the Franciscan order in 1247. He especially liked to pursue experimental science. He was the first European to describe in detail the process of making gunpowder, and he proposed flying machines and motorized ships and carriages. He represents the empirical spirit of experimental science, even though his actual practice of it seems to have been exaggerated. His philosophical thought was essentially Aristotelian, though he was critical of the methods of theologians such as [|Albertus Magnus] and [|Thomas Aquinas], arguing that a more accurate experimental knowledge of nature would be of great value in confirming the Christian faith. He also wrote on mathematics and logic. He was condemned to prison in 1277 by his fellow Franciscans because of "suspected novelties" in his teaching.

__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Major Discoveries/Achievements and their Significance __
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> __**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Royal Society Major Achievement: **__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Experimental evidence established as the arbiter of truth. __**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Significance: **__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> This is one of the basis on which modern science is founded on. It rules that theories cannot be taken for to be real unless there is evidence supporting it, pushing the need to perform experiments and ending years of blindly believing the given authority even if they had no evidence.

__**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton Major Achievement: **__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Newton fusing the inductive and deductive methods together to form a new scientific method. <span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">//<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Newton invented a scientific method which was truly universal in its scope. Newton presented his methodology as a set of four rules for scientific reasoning. These rules were stated in the // <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Principia and proposed that (1) we are to admit no more causes of natural things such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances, (2) the same natural effects must be assigned to the same causes, (3) qualities of bodies are to be esteemed a s universal, and (4) propositions deduced from observation of phenomena should be viewed as accurate until other phenomena contradict them. The significance of Newton's work is that it became a model that other sciences sought to emulate, and his inductive approach formed the basis for much of natural philosophy through the 18th and early nineteenth centuries. Also, his work, in addition to Galileo's work, introduced the discovery on the laws of universal motion, and corresponding with the rules he set up, it was a clearer way of understanding the universe, and by also confirming the heliocentric theory with sufficient proof and strong pieces of evidence from experiments that cannot be neglected, the conception and popularity of a mechanistic, mathematical worldview among the society increased greatly. Newton also combined Bacon (induction and experimentation) and Descartes's (deduction from correct grounds and mathematical logic) proposed scientific methodology into a single holistic method of research. __**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Significance: **__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Before Newton fused the two method together, the 2 schools of thought were competing to out-edge each other. However, both methods only worked for selective experiments while majority of the experiments came out with faulty results. By fusing the 2 methods together, Newton created a new method that could now apply to most experiments and drew from the best of each method.This is shown by how the process is as such, where new deductions derived( deductive method, positivism approach to research) from general concepts and premises could then be tested and verified by precise experiments(inductive method, anti- positivism approach to research).

__**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Galileo Major Achievement: **__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Galileo standardized measurements and also carefully recorded his results, allowing others to replicate his results. __**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Significance: **__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Before this, experiments could not be repeated and it was hard to ascertain the reliability of the experiment since it was difficult reproducing it. However, with this standardization, people could now reproduce the experiment if they doubted its reliability. Recording was also important as recording of information lets people check if the conclusion from the experiment is logical.

__**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Aristotle Major Discovery/Achievement: **__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Inductive reasoning by Aristotle a) what people had previously written or said on the subject, b) the general consensus of opinion on the subject, c.) and a systematic study of everything else that is part of or related to the subject. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;">Aristotle was the first person to really think out the problem of evidence. When he approached a problem, he would examine a.) what people had previously written or said on the subject, b.) the general consensus of opinion on the subject, c.) and a systematic study of everything else that is part of or related to the subject. In his treatise on animals, he studied over five hundred species; in studying government, he collected and read 158 individual constitutions of Greek states as his fundamental data. This is called inductive reasoning :observing as many examples as possible and then working out the underlying principles. Inductive reasoning is the foundation of the Western scientific method. He provided this different school of thought to others as a fundamental, where theyt built up on his method of inductive reasoning, as seen from how Francis Bacon had continued and extended and delved deeper into this way of reasoning. __**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Significance: **__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Inductive reasoning is the foundation of the western scientific method. Before this, people relied only on the evidence which they obtained from their experiments, which could have a certain degree of error. However, the introduction of inductive reasoning made sure that results obtained would be more reliable by comparing with other sources, and it is used now by scientists when performing experiments.

__**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Karl Popper Major Achievement: **__ Falsifiability as a criterion for evaluating new hypotheses is popularized, testing of the internal consistency of the theoretical system to see if it involves any contradictions. This is then followed by distinguishing between the theory's empirical and logical elements. In performing this step the scientist makes the logical form of the theory explicit. Followed by the comparing of the new theory with existing ones to determine whether it constitutes an advance upon them. If it does not constitute such an advance, it will not be adopted. If, on the other hand, its explanatory success matches that of the existing theories, and additionally, it explains some hitherto anomalous phenomenon, or solves some hitherto unsolvable problems, it will be deemed to constitute an advance upon the existing theories, and will be adopted. Thus science involves theoretical progress. But at any given time there will be a number of conflicting theories or conjectures, some of which will explain more than others. The latter will consequently be provisionally adopted. Lastly, the testing of a theory by the empirical application of the conclusions derived from it. If such conclusions are shown to be true, the theory is corroborated (but never verified). If the conclusion is shown to be false, then this is taken as a signal that the theory cannot be completely correct (logically the theory is falsified), and the scientist begins his quest for a better theory. __**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Significance: **__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Scientists design experiments and try to obtain results verifying or disproving a hypothesis, but philosophers determine what factors determine the validity of scientific results by determining the nature of science itself and influence the direction of viable research. As one theory is falsified, another evolves to replace it and explain the new observations. One of the tenets behind science is that any scientific hypothesis and resultant experimental design must be inherently falsifiable. If falsifiablity had not been discovered, experiments would not be based on facts but what scientists assume to be facts. Although falsifiability is not universally accepted, it is still the foundation of the majority of scientific experiments.

__**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Francis Bacon Major achievements: **__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> He introduced new research methods which brought thinking and scientific researches to a higher standard as well as research methods onto a proper course. This correct scientific method is built on **inductive principles**. The main rationale of his methodology is that one needs to conduct precise experimentations and systematic observations, then can one formulate a generalisation. The Baconian method consists of procedures for isolating the cause of a phenomenon, including the method of agreement, method of difference, and method of concomitant variation. It suggests a procedure whereby a list of conditions that the phenomena occurs in and a list of conditions the phenomena does not occur in is drawn up, and by matching and elimination, the underlying cause can be found. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"> By directing natural philosophy towards an examination of empirical evidence, Bacon also believed that the achievements of science had a practical and noble purpose of improvement for mankind. He looked to a future of material improvement achieved through induction of empirical examination of nature. Indeed, some scientific investigations had this goal (Copernicus' proposal of a heliocentric Earth was to eradicate the confusions of time and the calendar that came along with the wrongly predicted idea of a geocentric universal) but at that time, much research was purely for knowledge and curiosity's sake and with the aim of benefiting mankind. Bacon's thought in this area paved the way for the eventual strong linkage between scientific research and human progress. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> This framework of scientific perspective formulated by him is seen from how in his [|Novum Organum] (published in 1620), Bacon argued that traditional methods of deduction should be replaced by inductive reasoning: "There are and can be only two ways of searching into and discovering truth. The one flies from the senses and particulars to the most general axioms, and from these principles, the truth of which it takes for settled and immovable, proceeds to judgment and middle axioms. And this way is now in fashion. The other derives axioms from the senses and particulars, rising by a gradual and unbroken ascent, so that it arrives at the most general axioms last of all. This is the true way, but as yet untried."(from Novum Organum) __**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Significance: **__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> By conceptualizing proper and correct methodology of scientific research, modern research discoveries could obtain a greater reliabillity and accuracy. Also, by encouraging the link between human progress and scientific research, it framed a proper aim for scientists to work towards and suited scientific researches to development of mankind.Scientists made use of parts of these methods as a framework to assist their research, and this is turn brought about many new discoveries, or allowed for reintroduction of previously- rejected ideas, due to the sufficiency of solid proof. Even though Bacon himself had few scientific discoveries, he contributed greatly to scientific development through his works in the philosophical field by conceptualizing proper and correct methodology of scientific research so that research discoveries could have a gre ater reliabillity and accuracy. This can be seen from how he believed the pursuit of new knowledge would increase the power of governments and monarchies, and this allowed for the eventual strong linkage between governments and the scientific enterprise. For example, Bacon argues that instead of beginning with first assumed principles and deducing seemingly logical conclusions from them (like how Ptolemy assumed that the spheres moved in circular motion around the Earth because God's creation must be perfect), natural philosophers should start from studying the most fundamental basics (like Newton starting from the fundamental problems of motion to induce reasons behind planetary movement and orbits) and conduct carefully planned experiments and thorough systematic observations to develop correct generalizations. (e.g.from precise astronomical observations, Tycho Brahe could accurately arrive at the conclusion that other planets did not revolve around the Earth).

__**Rene Descartes** **Major achievement:**__ He contributed in the field of a rational type of deductive reasoning, and this advocated critical thinking in education instead of didactic, rote learning. The discovery and new approach that contributed to the Scientific method in the field of philosophy, is that he emphasized on deductive reasoning and mathematical logic.The impulse behind his work is that he realised that, for all the importance of observation and experiment, people can be deceived by their own senses. This formation of his methodology is seen from how as he explained in Discourse on Method, he explained that each step in an argument should be as sharp and precise as mathematical proof, and have an establishment of logical premises to build an acceptable argument. He believed that one could start with self evident truths, and deduce more complex conclusions. __**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Significance: **__<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> The significance of his ideas was that the methodology of logical deduction was valuable in answering the question as to how something works-logical way of deriving conclusions and generalisations, and its success in doing this gave others much confidence in this method, increasing the acceptance of the method and therefore, progression in the acceptance of a scientific, rational worldview and deductive, logically- proven way of thinking, breaking away from the Medieval worldview of conducting deductive reasoning only by what a person can see(defective). It also complemented Bacon's emphasis on experiment and induction.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Idea of making observations, hypothesizing and then experimenting to test the hypothesis. Also, his methodolgy was to repeat experiments to verify results. <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">He based his idea of experimental science on an explicit notion of a true scientific method. Taking reason and experience even further, Bacon taught that there is a double way of coming to the knowledge of things, one through the experiments of science. He developed the idea of making observations,<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|hypothesizing] and then <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|experimenting] to <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|test the hypothesis]. In addition, he documented his experiments meticulously so that other scientists could <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|repeat] his experiments and verify his results. Bacon was regarded as the forerunner of the modern experimental method and advocated a scientific method of learning emphasizing observation, experimentation, mathematics and physics. He was a devotee of "true" experimental methods. It is said that he was more an advocate of experimental science than an actual practitioner of it, but was far ahead of others in the realm of natural science and accurate observation of phenomena. His advocation of experimental science can be seen from how he supplemented Aristotle's account of scientific knowledge with accounts of science taken from many sources, including the Ptolemaic sources, Abu Ma'shar, other Astronomy writers, and especially from Ibn al-Haytham. Also, he had placed a greater emphasis personal experimental insight over mere 'book' knowledge or reasoning. ** <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">__**Significance:**__ This scientific method allowed people to observe and to repeat experiments. The significance of this was that this method of conducting experiments ensured that results obtained were as accurate as possible, so that wrong information would not be collected. This allowed correct information and discoveries to spread around to people. This method is also used now in modern world, for experiments conducted.
 * __<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Roger Bacon Major achievements: __

Therefore, with the contributions of these scientists, the Scientific Method developed with time, and besides usage of it to change the way people thought about the universe, the use of it resulted in discoveries in the field of medicine, physics and biology.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> <span style="color: #000cff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] [|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Bacon] <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[] [] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baconian_method] <span style="color: #0000ff; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|http://www.experiment-resources.com/history-of-the-scientific-method.html] [|http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/newton_isaac.shtml] <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">[|http://www.experiment-resources.com/history-of-the-scientific-method.html#ixzz0g6HBD8Gb] [] [|http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/ http://www.bookrags.com/Roger_Bacon] [] [] [] [|http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blnewton.htm http://www.phy.hr/~dpaar/fizicari/xnewton.html] [|http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Newton.html] [|http://www.notablebiographies.com/An-Ba/Aristotle.html] [|http://library.thinkquest.org/3461/galgal_m.htm] [|http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/History_of_scientific_method] [|http://www.scientificmethod.com/] [|http://www.uic.edu/depts/quic/history/francis_bacon.html] [|http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/ideas/bacon.html] [|http://www.elizabethan-era.org.uk/sir-francis-bacon.htm] [|http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/48191/Baconian-method] [|http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/philosophers/descartes.html] [] [] [] [] [] [|http://www.phy.hr/~dpaar/fizicar/xnewton.html] = <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 80%;">[|Online Journal] = =**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Scientific method in practice **= <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">By Hugh G. Gauch Google Books: =**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method **= <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 13px; margin-left: 2px;">By Morris F. Cohen Online Journal: Roger Bacon and the sciences: commemorative essays
 * __References__**