The Scientific Method and the Growth of Scientific Knowledge

Abstract

One of the products of the scientific revolution is the general procedure for conducting scientific enquiry called the scientific method. The scientific method came to replace Aristotle's (384 – 322 BC) methods which was considered by some philosophers as non-systematic, non-verifiable and non-justifiable and therefore could not produce verifiable and justifiable knowledge. It was these characteristics of the Aristotle's purely deductive method that led philosophers to advocate and propagate a new way of forming knowledge. One of such philosophers who made significant impact on the formulation of the scientific method was Francis Bacon (1561 - 1626). Bacon proposed that theories should be drawn from several observations which are free from the observers' prejudices. Bacon's proposal was contested later by David Hume (1711-1776) and Karl Popper (1902 - 1994). Hume and Popper did not just contest Bacon's method, they offered suggestions that shaped the scientific method into a resilient method. For example, they proposed that scientific enquiry should not begin with observations, it should rather begin with what we now call hypothesis or research question. The contribution of Bacon, Hume and Popper to the emergence of the scientific method and the growth of scientific knowledge are enormous.