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Scientific Method: Theories
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In the late 19th century, Charles Sanders Peirce proposed a schema that would turn out to have considerable influence in the development of current scientific method generally. Peirce accelerated the progress on several fronts. Firstly, speaking in broader context in "How to Make Our Ideas Clear" (1878) [3], Peirce outlined an objectively verifiable method to test the truth of putative knowledge on a way that goes beyond mere foundational alternatives, focusing upon both deduction and induction. He ... placed induction and deduction in a complementary rather than competitive context (the latter of which had been the primary trend at least since David Hume, who wrote in the mid-to-late 18th century). Secondly, and of more direct importance to modern method, Peirce put forth the basic schema for hypothesis/testing that continues to prevail today. Extracting the theory of inquiry from its raw materials in classical logic, he refined it in parallel with the early development of symbolic logic to address the then-current problems in scientific reasoning.
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At some point in your high school or college career, you will be asked to solve at least one problem using the scientific method. The scientific method involves stating the problem, researching options and possibilities, testing these possibilities and forming a conclusion or theory. Even if the first test does not prove the expected conclusion, the failure to do so will provide a springboard to another hypothesis.
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The only requirement that a theory must meet to be scientific is the requirement that the theory's hypotheses are all designed to explain scientifically observed natural patterns and they are testable by the scientific method. However, there are some additional criteria which enhance the scientific value of a theory or paradigm. These additional criteria are often labeled as the "pragmatic criteria." This label is misleading, because the entire scientific method seeks pragmatic confirmations of the empirical consequences of hypotheses. The most important additional criteria are:
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Peirce held that, in practical matters, slow and stumbling ratiocination is not generally to be automatically preferred over instinct and tradition, and held that scientific method is best suited to theoretical inquiry. What recommends the specifically scientific method of inquiry above all others is the fact that it is deliberately designed to arrive, eventually, at the ultimately most secure beliefs, upon which the most successful actions can eventually be based. In 1877, he outlined four methods for the fixation of belief, the settlement of doubt, graded by their success in achieving a sound settlement of belief.
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The idealised scientific method relies on observation in that observation is crucial to verification. There are two difficulties with using observation in this way. Firstly it can be argues that observation is embedded in theory, and so cannot act as a neutral arbiter. Secondly, any theory can be made compatible with any observation by suitable modification.
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A scientific theory is a unified set of principles, knowledge, and methods for explaining the behavior of some specified range of empirical phenomena. Scientific theories attempt to understand the world of observation and sense experience. They attempt to explain how the natural world works.
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