The scientific method

karl PopperThe scientific method is a method of investigation used primarily in the production of knowledge in the sciences.

It is intended to be a pattern that allows researchers to go from the initial point of an investigation until conclusions with confidence to obtain valid knowledge.

The scientific method is supported by two pillars. The first of these is the reproducibility, i.e., the ability to repeat a given experiment, and the second pillar is the Falsifiability. In other words, that any scientific proposition must be capable of being falsifiable by experiments (Falsifiability). Karl Popper was who founded the epistemological current of the Falsifiability, refutationism or principle of falsifiability, by which to contrast a theory, should be able to try to refute it by a counterexample.

There are many scientific methods and every branch of science have their own which are effective. We cannot say that there is a single scientific method.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) defined the hypothetical deductive scientific method by dividing it into the following parts:

  • Observation: To observe is to apply carefully the senses to an object or a phenomenon, to study such as presented in reality, It can be occasional or causally.
  • Induction: The action and effect of extracting, from certain observations or specific experiences, the particular principle of each of them.
  • Hypothesis: Approach by observation following the rules established by the scientific method.
  • To test the hypothesis by experimentation.
  • Demonstration or rebuttal (antithesis) the hypothesis.
  • Thesis or scientific theory (conclusions).

Karl Popper deepened in the scientific method, especially on the principle of Falsifiability, putting it as incontrovertible principle of science, coming to say that if something is not falsifiable it is not scientific. With him came the current of thought of the Falsifiability. Popper proposed a scientific method of conjecture from which are deducted the observable consequences and are tested. If fails the consequence, the hypothesis is disproven, and should then be rejected. Otherwise, If everything is checked, the process is repeated whereas other deductible consequences. When a hypothesis has survived several attempts of refutation it is said to be corroborated, but this does not allow us to say that it has been definitely confirmed, but only temporarily. The Einstein’s relativity theory emerges and is confirmed by this principle.

[Via: http://www.relatividad.org/metodo-cientifico.html]