Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Defining Science
- 3 Learning Science
- 4 Development of the Scientific Method: From Papyrus to Petaflops
- 5 Science in Practice
- 6 Science as a Social Endeavor
- 7 Epilogue
- Appendix A: A Simple Question with Profound Implications
- Appendix B: Chaos in the Brickyard
- References
- Index
4 - Development of the Scientific Method: From Papyrus to Petaflops
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 September 2023
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Defining Science
- 3 Learning Science
- 4 Development of the Scientific Method: From Papyrus to Petaflops
- 5 Science in Practice
- 6 Science as a Social Endeavor
- 7 Epilogue
- Appendix A: A Simple Question with Profound Implications
- Appendix B: Chaos in the Brickyard
- References
- Index
Summary
Science is distinguished from other endeavors by the scientific method, which starts with curiosity and leads sequentially from hypothesis to experimental testing to hypothesis revision, and finally, to knowledge. This chapter traces the development of the scientific method from ancient Egypt, Greece, the Islamic world, Europe (beginning in the Middle Ages), and the modern world (eighteenth to twenty-first century). It shows how the method became increasingly rigorous and precise through codification of its practice and the use of statistics in data analysis. The contributions of philosophy to the method and its possible senescence, in the light of data-driven science, also are discussed.
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- The Philosophy and Practice of Science , pp. 60 - 137Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023