1.+The+Invention+of+the+Scientific+Method

By Zi Bing (301), Gladys (306), Nandhini (301)


 * The Invention of the Scientific Method**


 * __Timeline of the invention of the scientific method__ **

384 to 322BC -Aristotle believed that inductive and deductive methods as well as empirical study of the universe helped to understand the phenomena of the world. 287-212BC -Archimedes gave the first scientific method to calculate the value of pi. He also showed that mathematical data was crucial in the reliability of an experiment. 721AD to 815 AD -Geber based his theories on systematic experimentation. 801-873AD -Al-Kindi or also known as Alkindus placed much emphasis on experimentation and also introduced the term of quantification. He understood the importance of direct observation and empiricism in his experimentation. 965-1040AD -Alhazen used scientific testing to check his hypothesis and substantiate inductive conjectures. His scientific method is the most similar to the one we use today 980-1037AD -Avicenna introduced the proper methodology for an experiment and also added the idea of induction and experimentation and examination 1220-1235AD -Robert Grosseteste established Aristotle’s dual way of scientific reasoning where he mentioned that particular observations led to a universal law and this law provided explanations for other detailed observations. This process was called “resolution and composition”. 1265AD -Roger Bacon brought in the need for verification and also introduced the cycle of observation, hypothesis and experimentation. 1403-1408AD -Yongle Encyclopedia, the world's first encyclopedia was published. This encyclopedia helped to assemble the various scientific works done by numerous scientists and can be used as a scholarly reference for future scientific research. 1590AD - The first controlled experiment was conducted by Francis Bacon 1595AD -The microscope was invented in Holland. This invention allowed for the detailed observations of tiny organisms and particles which otherwise were unable to be seen by the naked eye. 1608AD - The telescope was invented in Holland and this allowed for observations of planets and stars in the sky. 1620AD -Novum Organum was published by Francis Bacon. In this book, he established the method of reduction and inductive reasoning. This meant that particular principles are built and through reduction, they can be classified under one common generalisation through organised experiments and systematic observations. He had this empirical approach to knowledge. 1637AD -Rene Descartes emphasised on deduction and mathematical proof in an experiment. This was called the Cartesian thinking and Descartes believed in logic and reasoning (he never believed in any principles unless he has been convinced that they are true). 1638AD -“Two New Sciences” was published by Galileo. His 2 famous experiments “Galileo’s Leaning Tower of Pisa” and “Galileo’s ship” showed that existing theories has consequences which contradicted their predictions. He also emphasised on inductive reasoning and systematic experimentation 1650AD -Society of experts called the Royal Society was established. This helped various scientists from around the world to come together and discuss their findings. 1650AD — Experimental evidence established as the arbiter for truth by the Royal Society. 1665AD — Repeatability established by Robert Boyle for more reliable experimental results 1665AD -Scholarly Journals were established resulting in the emergence of knowledge communities. One’s theories were made available to other scientists in mainly Italian(democratised knowledge) 1687AD -Hypothesis/Prediction invented by Newton. On top of that, he rejected Descartes’ rationalism but used Bacon’s inductive reasoning(empiricism) in his scientific method.

__**People involved in the establishment and the development of the Scientific Method**__ Short biographies of famous “men of science” who have contributed to the establishment and development of the modern Scientific Method. A brief outline on the methods and ways which each scientist used to do science is also included.


 * __Brief biographies of the people involved (in chronological order): __**


 * __Aristotle__**


 * __Background Information __**

- He was born in Stageira, Thrace (present day a little east of Salonica, Greece) - He studied until Plato in his academy for around 20 years, before Plato’s death - His main discipline is Philosophy, though he dabbled in other areas like ethics, physics, logic and music - As the head of Macedon’s (an old Greek kingdom) royal academy, he educated people who would become famous personalities, like Alexander the Great, Ptolemy and Cassander - He held a dislike for Persians and the Islamic World, thus he encouraged Alexander the Great to began his conquest for land eastwards - He established his own institution in Athens in 355 BC, known as the //Lyceum //, and from this period onwards, it was his intellectual “peak period”, as he produced many works in the next few decades - He was a keen learner and sought to increase his knowledge by dabbling in every field of expertise available at that time - He believed that society should be governed by cultured men, and that slavery was acceptable as he believed that Greeks are superior to others, particularly the Persians and the Islamists - While studying nature, he often made careful observations pertaining to his surroundings, believing that every matter on earth has a rightful place in nature - Supported geocentrism - Developed his “four causes” of doing science, that one must find out about the causes behind change and motion


 * __Aristotle’s ways and methods of doing science __**

- Classified science into many different branches, showing how areas of discipline are inter-related to one another but also, the differences that separate them - Conceptualized the deductive system of thinking and doing science, but he believes in using both the inductive and deductive methods - Concentrated on qualitative writing, rather than quantitative writings - Aristotle, being an empiricist, stressed on the importance of gaining experience so that knowledge could be acquired by using one’s five senses - Focused a lot of his reasoning skills rather than observations, which he did briefly only, to support his claims and theories - Chose to use the deductive method when he was doing science, as he thought that new perspectives can be thought out from already established universal laws and theories


 * __Ibu al-Haytham (Alhazen): __**


 * __Background information __**

- He was a well-known Muslim physicist in the 1000s. - Born in Basra, otherwise known as present-day Iraq - First dabbled in theology - Was a devout Muslim, and believed that Allah/God, unlike humans, is perfect - Too confident about his mathematical abilities that he claimed that he could regulate the floods of the River Nile, but feigned mental instability when asked to carry out this operation, which resulted in him being placed house arrest - Completed his famous work “Book of Optics” when he was under house arrest for 10 years, which started a new revolution in the fields of optics and mathematics - Produced works in his other areas of expertise like astronomy and mathematics when his house arrest ended in 1021 - Greatly believed to be the first scientist - Invented the pinhole camera and established the laws of refraction


 * __Alhazen’s ways and methods of doing science __**

- Carried out experimental methods to validate hypotheses - Practised controlled testing by using a scientific control in his experiments - Placed great priority on finding the truth in his self-established scientific method - Believed in the importance of scientific skepticism and strongly rejected claims not backed up by evidences - Stated that induction is a must for scientific experiments and research - Frequently questioned phenomenal explanations provided by ancient scientists - Disapproved Aristotle’s methods of using logic to support his claims and theories - His scientific methods were very similar to modern scientific methods in terms of procedural steps: ð Observation ð Writing a statement introducing the problem about to be investigated in the experiment ð Forming of the hypothesis ð Carrying out the experiment to test the hypothesis ð Analysing data collected from the experiment ð Forming a conclusion in reference to the data analysis and interpretation ð Publication of experiment’s results and findings


 * __Robert Grosseteste __**


 * __Background Info: __**

- Born in Stradbroke, Suffolk - Was a scientist, theologian and a philosopher - Excelled in the liberal arts, literature, law and medicine when he was young, and so entered Oxford University to further his education in theology - Was Archdeacon of Leicester in 1229 and slowly rose higher above the ranks to assume the title of Bishop of London in 1235, where he had high expectations of his subjects - Was an active participant in natural philosophy, often publishing works cross-related to other fields like astrology and cosmology - In his famous work //Concerning Light //, he believed that light was the fundamental of all matter, and frequently linked his claim to the famous statement made in the Bible, “Let there be light; And there was light” - In his opinion, mathematics could be used to explain natural phenomenon - Identified mathematics as the most important of all sciences - Produced the Temple of God in his career as a professional theologian, addressing topics like confession and penance - Disapproved some ways of the papacy and accused the papacy of being the sources of the problems faced by the church in the 1250s - His roles as scientist and scholar were often overshadowed by his titles and positions in political and church involvements - Translated ancient Greek and Arabic texts written by Ibn Al-Haytham, Ibn Sina and Aristotle to Latin, thus introducing their ideas and claims pertaining to scientific methodology to the Western world


 * __Grosseteste’s ways and methods of doing science __**

- He was one of the first Western scholars to understand Aristotle’s theory made in reference to scientific reasoning - Developed the theory of “resolution and composition”, which gathered observations made to form a universal law, and then using this universal law to generate other predictions - Strong believer in the importance of experimentation; believed that resolution and composition should be verified by carrying out experiments in both sides - Between 1220-1235, while translating the works of famous ancient Greeks and Islamists like Aristotle and Ibn Al-Haytham, he also included his own perspectives and critiques, creating the backbone for the proper methods in which science should be practiced - He does not arrive at a conclusion easily, but only after much thought and consideration had been practiced, to ensure that his conclusion is the best way possible to conclude his experimental findings - Pioneered science’s emphasis to be on controlled experimentations and mathematical descriptions instead of using assumptions or religious methods introduced by the ancient authorities


 * __Roger Bacon __**


 * __Background information __**

- Born in Ilchester, Somerset - Greatly inspired by the works of ancient scholars like Plato and Aristotle, as well as Muslim contributors like Ibn Sina - Studied and lectured at Oxford University about Aristotle - Later, in 1247, he turned into an independent scholar studying languages and areas concerning experimental science - He was one of the first Westerners to detail the process of gunpowder creation - Believed to have invented the eyeglass and the telescope, and also thought to be the first to examine cells through a microscope - Thought the earth was spherical in shape, and one could sail around it without falling off the edges- thus disapproving claims that the earth was like a box - He believes in the dual way of acquiring scientific knowledge, by experimenting or by divine interpretation - He also experimented with alchemy - Turned to studying languages as he did not want to depend on translations of Aristotle’s works, which were written in Greek, a language not widely-spoken or known - Thrown into prison and was wrongly accused of practicing witchcraft and defying God, but he still remained determined to acquire knowledge


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Bacon’s ways and methods of doing Science __**

- Strongly rejects scientists blindly following theories established by their predecessors, but encouraged them to undertake studies by observing nature - Developed a method to carry out scientific experiments which include the following steps: repetitions of observation, creating hypotheses, experimentation, and verification - Believed in the importance of concise detailing of his experiments so other could undertake his experiments in the best way possible to either validate or test his results - Preferred experience over reasoning, for with experience could people be satisfied with the results obtained, and a huge limitation of reasoning is that it cannot be proved correct without carrying it out


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Galileo Galilei __**


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Background Information __**

- Born in Pisa, Dutchy of Florence (now present-day Italy) - Was educated in a monastery when he was young, but instead of considering priesthood, he studied and later obtained a degree in mathematics in the University of Pisa, which he taught there - When he was appointed chair of mathematics in the University of Pisa, he came up with a claim that theories pertaining to falling bodies could be carried out by using inclined plane to decrease the speed made during descent in his work //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">De Motu // - Transferred to the University of Padua in 1592 and taught geometry, mechanics and astronomy - Despite his strong religious beliefs, Galileo married and even fathered children - He improved on the newly-invented telescope and managed to magnify the lenses to about eight or nine times bigger, as compared to the newly-invented telescope which only had a magnification of three to four times - The Venetian Senate was very impressed with his improvement of the telescope - In 1610, Galileo had started to use his telescope to examine the night sky, and discovered that the Moon had “mountains”, otherwise known as craters, that many stars made up the Milky Way and there were actually sunspots on the sun in his published works //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Starry Messenger // (1610) and //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Letters of the Sunspots // (1613) - This was exactly the opposite of Ptolemy’s theory that the moon was smooth - Realised that moons actually orbited Jupiter, and thus proofed that the earth was not the only body in the universe that had objects orbiting it - Supported Copernicius’s idea of an earth-centered universe, which astonished many of his contemporaries and the Catholic church, as it went against the popular belief that God would place his creations in the center of the universe - His challenging of ancient authorities like Aristotle was unacceptable to the Church, and Cardinal Robert Bellarmine, a strong critic of Galileo and Copernicus’ works, ordered Galileo to banish his earth-centered ideas and work on other things instead - Got into trouble with the Church with his book, //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems // (1632), which compared the Ptolemic theory of an earth-centered universe and Copernius’s theory of a sun-centered universe - Found guilty of heresy in 1633 and put under house arrest, where he remained under his death. //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Dialogue Concerning the Two World Systems // was thus banned in the same year. - Throughout his life, Galileo was a devout Catholic, but he also realized the importance of the Church to work hand-in-hand with science to discover new knowledge - Devoted the years in house arrest to study kinematics and mathematics, which he was more well-known for


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Galileo’s ways and methods of doing Science __**

- Placed a strong focus on experimentation and observation, and did not come up with claims and theories not personally tested by him, unlike his contemporaries - Strong practitioner of the inductive method, which emphasized on observations before coming up with claims and theories, rather than the popular deductive method, which is the coming up of many claims based on a few true and verified statements - Often changed his views from his original one if observations do not support his original views - He would firstly reduce a very sophisticated problem based on logic, before using mathematics to address the problem


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Francis Bacon __**


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Background Information __**

- Bacon was born in York House, London - He was home-schooled when he was still a child, before entering the Trinity College of Cambridge when he was 12 - He realised from his knowledge gained in his pursuit for education that the methods and ways which science was carried out were flawed, and many theories and claims by ancient authorities were actually untrue - His goals in life: uncover truth, serve both his country and the church well - He first started out as an outer barrister in 1582, before rising to become the 2nd Earl of Essex’s adviser in 1591 and Queen’s Counsel in 1596 - He received his knighthood from King James I in 1603 - His career was on the rise, having gained favoritism from the king, and he became attorney general in 1613 and Lord Chancellor in 1618 - Felled into disgrace in 1621, when he was accused on corruption charges and banned from assuming office ever again, which provided him time to carry out his studies - Although he did not make much contributions to science, his development of the scientific method steered scientists and scholars to a new method and goal of practicing science


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Francis Bacon's ways and methods of doing Science: __**

- He is believed to be the Father of Empiricism, which emphasizes on the importance of testing hypotheses, theories and claims by observation or experimentation and not just relying on intuition or reasoning for verification purposes - Before starting the process of induction, it is essential to maintain neutrality, so that the individual will not lean towards either side and thus affect his judgement - Developed the Baconian method - Believed that the purpose of science was to improve the lives of humans, and co-related science to material progress, which still influences society today - Observation, to Bacon, was all-powerful in science, as it must be the first step in everything that one undertakes - According to Bacon, a theory, claim or hypothesis must support and corroborate with what was actually observed - Drew up a list titled //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Idols of the Mind //, which contains four factors which will cloud judgement in conducting accurate scientific reasoning: ð //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Idols of the Tribe //, which is a form of human tendency to over-perceive order and regularity in systems, due to preconceived notions pertaining to a certain idea ð //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Idols of the Cave //, which accounts for individuals’ shortcomings in the ability to reason due to personal preferences, dislikes, behavior or environment ð //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Idols of the Marketplace //, which is caused by language confusions and wrong usage of words, causing misinterpretation and misinformation ð //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Idols of the Theatre //, which refers to the blind following of already-established knowledge and thus not bothering to find out more about the world around


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Rene Descartes __**


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Background Information: __**

- He was born in Indre-et-Loire, France - Graduated from the University of Poitiers with a degree in law in 1616, but he was also educated in theology, philosophy and medicine - His interest was piqued in mathematics and physics in 1618, when he met Issac Beeckman, A Dutch philosopher cum scientist - Travelled around Europe from 1620-1628, before settling in the Netherlands, where he finished all his major works - Finished his famous work, Rules for the Direction of Mind, in 1628 - Produced //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Le Monte // (//<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The World //) in 1633, but due to Galileo’s condemnation and trial, he thought it best not to publish it, as it included Copernician beliefs, which is the root of Galileo’s clash with the church - Finished a major work, Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting One’s Reason and of Seeking Truth in the Sciences, in 1637, which consists of Descartes’ self-formulated method for studying nature and the sciences - Came up with analytic geometry and founded the Cartesian coordinate system, which paved the applicability for calculus and mathematical analysis - His philosophies were condemned at the Utrecht University in 1643 - His works were prohibited by the Pope in 1667


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Descartes’s ways and methods of doing Science: __**

- Developed the Cartesian Method in his //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Discourse on the Method // of investigating natural modern science, which consist of four main rules: ð Applied doubt to every piece of knowledge that he encountered, and he refused to accept any form of existing knowledge without verification ð Believed that problems and difficulties should be divided into as many portions as possible ð In his opinion, a task should be broken down and one should attempt to complete the simpler parts first, before moving on to the more difficult parts ð Believed in having well-grounded arguments and systematic experimentation processes so that minute details would not be overlooked - The process of deduction and mathematical logic was crucial in Descartes’s opinion, which complemented Bacon’s emphasis on induction and experimentation ð Allowed concepts to be tested with observation skills and experimentation, which in turn allows for deductions to be made from these concepts, and these deductions could again be tested by experiments again - Recommended that one should clear his intellectual judgments before proceeding with any forms of study, free from any prior knowledge or biasness, thus practicing a huge amount of doubt and skepticism in the process of gaining new knowledge - Argued that inductive reasoning was more important than deductive reasoning in science - His method leans more to the theoretical side, as he believed in the importance of logic and rationality when dealing with experiments


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Issac Newton __**


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Brief information about Newton: __**

- <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Born in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, in England - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Fatherless since he was born, but he had a stepfather after his mother remarried - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">During his childhood, he was forced by his mother into being a farmer, but he disliked farming and persuaded his mother to send him back to school - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Perceived to be rather stupid and ignorant when he was a child, but his intellectual abilities were discovered and unleashed when he attended Cambridge University in 1661 - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">During his education period in Cambridge University, he started to delve into the works of Francis Bacon and Roger Descartes (philosophers), as well as works by Copernicus and Galileo - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Was forced to return home from university in 1666, when the university shut down in prevention of plague and this was the start of Newton’s intellectual ideas outbursts - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Invented the calculus during the two-year period where he carried out private studying - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Also thought about some ideas and theories about gravity and carried out investigations in the fields of optics and light - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Returned to Cambridge University as a fellow in 1667; two years later, he accepted the offer to be the second Lucasian professor of mathematics in the university - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Lectured in optics from 1970 onwards - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">From 1970-1972, he studied the refraction of light, carrying out experiments with prisms and refraction telescopes, and formulated his theory of colour - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">His works on optics in those two years pushed him to fame and recognition by not only the scientific community, but the public too - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Constructed the first reflecting telescope (known as a Newtonian telescope today) - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Published //On Colour// and //Opticks// (1704), which were about optics and the refraction of light, in the course of his works - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Also dealt in mathematics, and his //Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,// published in 1867 (more popularly known as //Principia Mathematica//) was probably his most well-known work - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">The //Principia Mathematica// consists of 3 parts, and the contents mainly covered Newton’s formulated three laws of motion, how they appeal to universal bodies, and his law on gravitation - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Came out with the term “gravity” to explain why objects are attracted to the earth - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Newton also left a huge legacy behind in the field of mathematics, contributing knowledge on the classification of cubic curves and the quadrature of curves - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Also dabbled in alchemy and chemistry - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Produced many works related to physics, mechanics, mathematics and optics, //namely Attempt To Prove the Motion of the Earth// (1674) and //Methods of Fluxions// (1671) - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Proved that just with one universal law (the law of gravitation), all forms of motions in the universe can be explained - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Knighted by Queen Anne in 1705 for his contributions in science and mathematics, and he was the first and only scientist to be buried in Westminster Abbey after his death


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Newton’s ways and methods of doing science: __**

- <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Came up with his own scientific method and reasoning which consists of four rules (also known as the //Rules of Reasoning//) ð <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Admit no causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient (the simplest explanation is the most likeliest to happen) ð <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Qualities of bodies, which are found to belong to all bodies within experiments, are to be esteemed universal (when a explanation is established from a cause through scientific experiments, the explanation should be applicable to all instances of the cause) ð <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Propositions collected from observation of phenomena should be viewed as accurate or very nearly true until contradicted by other phenomena (the truth of scientific theories or claims should be accepted unless an experiment or observation proves otherwise) - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Emphasized on the importance of observation and induction - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Supported many famous men of science’s beliefs (Grosseteste, Roger Bacon, Aristotle etc) that science should be both inductive and deductive, though in his opinion, induction should be placed on a higher importance than deduction - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Investigated nature and real-life problems by making observations and experimentations - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Believed that having a right and reliable scientific method is essential for acquiring scientific knowledge - <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Realised that explaining all nature’s occurrences is too demanding, and one should focus on his expertise area, investigating it to the best of his ability, and exercise self-control towards his desire to explore and discover everything


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Major milestones of the establishment of the Scientific Method & Its Significance __**

1) One of the achievements under the Scientific Method was when Francis Bacon delineated the **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">principles of the inductive thinking method **, which allowed one to proceed from the particular to the general, through carefully organised experiments and thorough systematic observations , correct generalizations could be developed. **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Observation **, to Bacon, was all-powerful in science, as it must be **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">the first step in everything that one undertakes ** and that a theory, claim or hypothesis must support and corroborate with what was actually observed. He argued that the use of empiricism alone is insufficient, and thus emphasized the necessity of fact-gathering as a first step in the scientific method, which could then be followed by carefully recorded and controlled (unbiased) experimentation. Bacon largely differed from his sixteenth century counterparts in his insistence that **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">experimentation should not be conducted to simply “see what happens” but “as a way of answering specific questions **.” Also, he believed that at the main purpose of **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">science was the betterment of human society ** and that experimentation should be applied to hard, real situations rather than to Aristotelian abstract ideas.

Bacon’s contributions are **significant** because he was a pioneer of the scientific method, he shifted the idea of using deductive syllogism, as proposed by Aristotle, to inductive experimentation. This has directed investigators of nature to a new method and a new purpose in scientific studies. This method has influenced society, even until today where his method is still the basis for the designing of scientific experiments. For example, in school, whether we are learning about designing an experiment in biology or physics, it is often about testing hypotheses, theories and claims by detailed observation or experimentation. This scientific method we learn today bears much resemblance to the Baconian method. Therefore, as we can see, Bacon's contributions are significant as they form the basis of the scientific method which is practiced worldwide & learnt by many students, scholars today.

2) Another major achievement of the scientific method wouild be when Rene Descartes developed the Cartesian Method in his //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Discourse on the Method // of investigating natural modern science, which consist of four main rules: ð Applied doubt to every piece of knowledge that he encountered, and he refused to accept any form of existing knowledge without verification ð Divide problems into their simplest parts ð In his opinion, a task should be broken down and one should attempt to complete the simpler parts first, before moving on to the more difficult parts ð Believed in having well-grounded arguments and systematic experimentation processes so that minute details would not be overlooked


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Descartes ** **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">argued that inductive reasoning & rationalism was more important than deductive reasoning in science, **and denounced Baconian reasoning and medieval empiricism as shallow and imperfect. However, like Bacon, Descartes believed that conclusions could come about through acceptance of a centrifugal system, in which one could work outwards from the certainty of existence of mind and God to find universal truths or laws that could be detected by reason. This, to put it in simpler terms, simply means that Descartes was convinced that **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">science and mathematics could be used to explain everything in nature, was the first to describe the physical universe in terms of matter and motion, seeing the universe as a giant mathematically designed engine **.

Descartes had made an important achievement & contribution as he established the scientific attitude & climate for scientific studies (with his 4 rules) and emphasized that one should clear his intellectual judgments before proceeding with any forms of study, free from any prior knowledge or biasness, thus practicing a huge amount of doubt and skepticism in the process of gaining new knowledge. This, like Bacon's method, has influenced society, even till today where. For example, in the 16 Habits of Mind that are taught to many students, there is "Questioning & Posing" & "Thinking about Thinking". This bears much resemblance to the Descartes method where he advocated for "appliying doubt to every piece of knowledge that he encountered, and he refused to accept any form of existing knowledge without verification" (see above). Therefore, Descartes method is also another very important achievement.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">3) **All these are important achievements by their own, but the greatest achievement would be when Isaac Newton synthesised the two methods together. This is **significant** because **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">the process of deduction and mathematical logic from Descartes’s opinion complemented Bacon’s emphasis on induction and experimentation. By uniting Bacon’s empiricism with Descarte’s rationalism, **This allowed concepts to be tested with observation skills and experimentation, which in turn allows for deductions (general concepts) to be made from these concepts, and these deductions could again be tested by specific experiments again. The significance of the synthesis of the two schools of thoughts (Bacon & Descartes) was because it is through this, that many were able to answer the question of “how something works”. For example, Newton's invention of calculus was mathematical reasoning based and his laws of motion were a result of experimentation (Bacon's inductive thinking) but his law of gravity was actually a synthesis of both methods as his knowledge of calculus enabled him to derive the law of gravity. Therefore, as one could see, the integration of Bacon & Descartes scientific method, as it brought about many discoveries (like Newton's lawof gravity), this was thus seen as one of the greatest achievement under the “Invention of the Scientific Method”.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">4) **Despite many history sources’ emphasis on the three man above as the “pioneers of the scientific method”, we as the creators of this wikipage, would like to make a special mention of the Islamic scholars, whom we felt, laid the foundations for the establishment of the scientific method. As read above in the brief biographies of the various Islamic scholars and their contributions, it is not hard to realize that these scholars were very realistic and practical in their approach and even before Bacon, they had already adopted the experimental method to harness scientific knowledge. According to western critics, these scholars realised that "science could not be advanced by mere speculation; its only sure progress lay in the practical interrogation of nature”. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">**Observation and experiment formed the vehicle of their scientific pursuits. This was a very signiciant contribution** as they gave a n**ew outlook to science of which the world had been totally unaware**. As evidence of this, these Islamic scholars made many significant contributions in scientific realms, and these included the fields of **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Physics and Chemistry **. It has been found out that in Islamic scholars’ writings on Mechanics, hydrostatics, optics, etc., the **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">solution of the problem is always obtained by performing an experiment, or by an instrumental observation **. It was this that made them the originator of chemistry, leading to the invention of many apparatus for distillation, sublimation, fusion and filtration. In astronomy, the scientific method allowed them to appeal to divided instrument, as quadrant and astrolabe; in chemistry to employ the balance the theory of which they were perfectly familiar with. As a result, they constructed tables of specific gravities and astronomical tables which allowed them to make further contributions in geometry and trigonometry.

Thus, as seen from this example, one could see the significance of Islamic scholars's employment of the scientific method - they laid the bricks for the official establishment & employment of the scientific method in the western world.


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">References/Sources consulted: __**

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">1. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">B. Gower, **//__Scientific Method, An Historical and Philosophical Introduction__//**, (Routledge, 1997), <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">2. //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Cottingham, John ////<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">. **__The Cambridge Companion to Descartes__** //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1992 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">3. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Wilson, Fred. //**__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Logic and Methodology of Science in Early Modern Thought: Seven Studies __**//. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999) <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">4. Taylor, Alfred Edward. **__Aristotle__**. Dover Publications, UK, 1955 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; msofareastfontfamily: Arial; msolist: Ignore;">5. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Westfall, Richard S. **//__The Life of Issac Newton__//**. Pantheon, USA, 2003 6. Spielvogel, Jackson J. __//**Western Civilisation, 5th ed.**//__ Thompson-Wadsworth, USA, 2003
 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Literature: __**

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">**Journals:** __

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">1. Kocher, Paul H. **//__Bacon on the Science of Jurisprudence__//**. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1957 2. Gewirtz, A. **//__Experience and the Non-Mathematical in the Cartesian Method__//**. //<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Journal of the History of Ideas //, 2 (1941), pp. 183-210


 * __<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Websites: __**

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[] <span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msofareastfontfamily: Calibri; msofareastthemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;">18. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Kent, Jo (2006).**//__The Impact of the Scientific Revolution: A Brief History of the Experimental Method in the 17th Century__//**. [] <span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msofareastfontfamily: Calibri; msofareastthemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;">19. **//__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Newton: The Mechanical Universe __//**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">. [] <span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msofareastfontfamily: Calibri; msofareastthemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;">20. **//__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Francis Bacon and the Scientific Method __//**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">. [] <span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msofareastfontfamily: Calibri; msofareastthemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;">21. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Hogan, James (2006) **//__Francis Bacon and The New Organon__//**. [] <span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msofareastfontfamily: Calibri; msofareastthemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;">22. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Wikipedia (2010). **//__History of scientific method__//**. [] <span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msofareastfontfamily: Calibri; msofareastthemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;">23. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Wikipedia (2010). **//__Timeline of the history of scientific method__//**. [] <span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msofareastfontfamily: Calibri; msofareastthemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;">24. **//__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Scientific Method History __//**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">. [] <span style="font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msofareastfontfamily: Calibri; msofareastthemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;">25. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 10pt;">Wikipedia (2010). **//__Scientific method__//**. [|[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method26.%20What%20is%20the%20importance/significance%20of%20the%20scientific%20method?|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method]]]

26 . **//What is the importance/significance of the scientific method?//** []