|
The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.〔"() Rules for the study of natural philosophy", , after Book 3, ''The System of the World''.〕 The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' defines the scientific method as "a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses."〔From the Oxford English Dictionary definition for "scientific".〕 The scientific method is an ongoing process, which usually begins with observations about the natural world. Human beings are naturally inquisitive, so they often come up with questions about things they see or hear and often develop ideas (hypotheses) about why things are the way they are. The best hypotheses lead to predictions that can be tested in various ways, including making further observations about nature. In general, the strongest tests of hypotheses come from carefully controlled and replicated experiments that gather empirical data. Depending on how well the tests match the predictions, the original hypothesis may require refinement, alteration, expansion or even rejection. If a particular hypothesis becomes very well supported a general theory may be developed.〔http://idea.ucr.edu/documents/flash/scientific_method/story.htm〕 Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, identifiable features are frequently shared in common between them. The overall process of the scientific method involves making conjectures (hypotheses), deriving predictions from them as logical consequences, and then carrying out experiments based on those predictions.〔〔See, for example, . His thought experiments disprove Aristotle's physics of falling bodies, in ''Two New Sciences''.〕 A hypothesis is a conjecture, based on knowledge obtained while formulating the question. The hypothesis might be very specific or it might be broad. Scientists then test hypotheses by conducting experiments. Under modern interpretations, a scientific hypothesis must be falsifiable, implying that it is possible to identify a possible outcome of an experiment that conflicts with predictions deduced from the hypothesis; otherwise, the hypothesis cannot be meaningfully tested. The purpose of an experiment is to determine whether observations agree with or conflict with the predictions derived from a hypothesis.〔Karl R. Popper, ''Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge'', Routledge, 2003 ISBN 0-415-28594-1〕 Experiments can take place in a college lab, on a kitchen table, at CERN's Large Hadron Collider, at the bottom of an ocean, on Mars, and so on. There are difficulties in a formulaic statement of method, however. Though the scientific method is often presented as a fixed sequence of steps, it represents rather a set of general principles.〔 〕 Not all steps take place in every scientific inquiry (or to the same degree), and are not always in the same order.〔''History of Inductive Science'' (1837), and in ''Philosophy of Inductive Science'' (1840)〕 ==Overview== :''The DNA example below is a synopsis of this method'' The scientific method is the process by which science is carried out.〔" The thesis of this book, as set forth in Chapter One, is that there are general principles applicable to all the sciences." __ 〕 As in other areas of inquiry, science (through the scientific method) can build on previous knowledge and develop a more sophisticated understanding of its topics of study over time.〔〔 The scientific method can function in the same way; This is the principle of noncontradiction.〕〔Francis Bacon(1629) ''New Organon'', lists 4 types of error: Idols of the tribe (error due to the entire human race), the cave (errors due to an individual's own intellect), the marketplace (errors due to false words), and the theater (errors due to incredulous acceptance).〕〔〔〔For example, the concept of falsification (first proposed in 1934) formalizes the attempt to ''disprove'' hypotheses rather than prove them. ''Karl R. Popper (1963), 'The Logic of Scientific Discovery'. (The Logic of Scientific Discovery ) pp. 17–20, 249–252, 437–438, and elsewhere.'' * Leon Lederman, for teaching physics first, illustrates how to avoid confirmation bias: Ian Shelton, in Chile, was initially skeptical that supernova 1987a was real, but possibly an artifact of instrumentation (null hypothesis), so he went outside and disproved his null hypothesis by observing SN 1987a with the naked eye. The Kamiokande experiment, in Japan, independently observed neutrinos from SN 1987a at the same time.〕 This model can be seen to underlay the scientific revolution.〔: "There is a danger that must be avoided. ... If we wish to do justice to the historical enterprise, we must take the past for what it was. And that means we must resist the temptation to scour the past for examples or precursors of modern science. ...My concern will be with the beginnings of scientific ''theories'', the methods by which they were formulated, and the uses to which they were put; ... "〕 One thousand years ago, Alhazen argued the importance of forming questions and subsequently testing them,〔"How does light travel through transparent bodies? Light travels through transparent bodies in straight lines only.... We have explained this exhaustively in our ''Book of Optics''. But let us now mention something to prove this convincingly: the fact that light travels in straight lines is clearly observed in the lights which enter into dark rooms through holes.... ()he entering light will be clearly observable in the dust which fills the air. – Alhazen, translated into English from German by M. Schwarz, from "Abhandlung über das Licht", J. Baarmann (ed. 1882) ''Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft'' Vol 36 as quoted in . * He demonstrated his conjecture that "light travels through transparent bodies in straight lines only" by placing a straight stick or a taut thread next to the light beam, as quoted in to prove that light travels in a straight line. * David Hockney, (2001, 2006) in ''Secret Knowledge: rediscovering the lost techniques of the old masters'' ISBN 0-14-200512-6 (expanded edition) cites Alhazen several times as the likely source for the portraiture technique using the camera obscura, which Hockney rediscovered with the aid of an optical suggestion from Charles M. Falco. ''Kitab al-Manazir'', which is Alhazen's ''Book of Optics'', at that time denoted ''Opticae Thesaurus, Alhazen Arabis'', was translated from Arabic into Latin for European use as early as 1270. Hockney cites Friedrich Risner's 1572 Basle edition of ''Opticae Thesaurus''. Hockney quotes Alhazen as the first clear description of the camera obscura in Hockney, p. 240. "Truth is sought for its own sake. And those who are engaged upon the quest for anything for its own sake are not interested in other things. Finding the truth is difficult, and the road to it is rough." – Alhazen (Ibn Al-Haytham 965 – c. 1040) ''Critique of Ptolemy'', translated by S. Pines, ''Actes X Congrès internationale d'histoire des sciences'', Vol I Ithaca 1962, as quoted in . (This quotation is from Alhazen's critique of Ptolemy's books ''Almagest'', ''Planetary Hypotheses'', and (''Optics'' as translated into English by A. Mark Smith ).)〕 an approach which was advocated by Galileo in 1638 with the publication of ''Two New Sciences''.〔, Dover reprint of the 1914 Macmillan translation by Henry Crew and Alfonso de Salvio of ''Two New Sciences'', Galileo Galilei Linceo (1638). Additional publication information is from the collection of first editions of the Library of Congress surveyed by .〕 The current method is based on a hypothetico-deductive model〔 p. 236.〕 formulated in the 20th century, although it has undergone significant revision since first proposed (for a more formal discussion, see below). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Scientific method」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|