Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method

Henry H. Bauer

University of Illinois Press, 1992 - Science - 180 pages

What is science? Is social science a science? Why are more and more so-called scientific discoveries being exposed as outright frauds? Henry Bauer tackles these and many more intriguing questions that are emerging from within the academic and scientific communities and attracting attention from the popular media and the general public. Whether one ......

What people are saying

User Review -

By:
Arif Nurahman
Harvard-MIT Open Course WareScientific method refers to techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning. A scientific method consists of the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.
Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, identifiable features distinguish scientific inquiry from other methodologies of knowledge. Scientific researchers propose hypotheses as explanations of phenomena, and design experimental studies to test these hypotheses. These steps must be repeatable in order to dependably predict any future results. Theories that encompass wider domains of inquiry may bind many hypotheses together in a coherent structure. This in turn may help form new hypotheses or place groups of hypotheses into context.
Among other facets shared by the various fields of inquiry is the conviction that the process be objective to reduce a biased interpretation of the results. Another basic expectation is to document, archive and share all data and methodology so they are available for careful scrutiny by other scientists, thereby allowing other researchers the opportunity to verify results by attempting to reproduce them. This practice, called full disclosure, also allows statistical measures of the reliability of these data to be established. 

Contents

• Scientific Literacy: 1
• The Socalled Scientific Method: 19
• How Science Really Works: 42
• Other Fables about Science: 63
• Imperfections of the Filter: 88
• Consequences of Misconception: 103
• In Praise of Science: 141
• Notes on Sources: 153
• Further Reading: 175
• Index: 177

Popular passages

Page 33 - Scientific" teaching, even of scientific subjects, will be inadequate as long as both teachers and pupils are human beings. Teaching is not like inducing a chemical reaction: it is much more like painting a picture or making a piece of music, or on a lower level like planting a garden or writing a friendly letter. You must throw your heart into it, you must realize that it cannot all be done by formulas, or you will spoil your work, and your pupils, and yourself.‎

Page 23 - It is a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in a theory until it has been confirmed by observation. I hope I shall not shock the experimental physicists too much if I add that it is also a good rule not to put overmuch confidence in the observational results that are put forward until they have been confirmed by theory.‎

Page 21 - The results serve to disprove the tetranucleotide hypothesis. It is, however, noteworthy — whether this is more than accidental, cannot yet be said — that in all desoxypentose nucleic acids examined thus far the molar ratios of total purines to total pyrimidines, and also of adenine to thymine and of guanine to cytosine, were not far from 1.‎

Page 32 - scientific" friendship would be as cold as a chess problem. "Scientific" teaching, even of scientific subjects, will be inadequate as long as both teachers and pupils are human beings. Teaching is not like inducing a chemical reaction: it is much more like painting a picture or making a piece of music, or on...‎

Page 43 - Such self-coordination of independent initiatives leads to a joint result which is unpremeditated by any of those who bring it about. Their coordination is guided as by an "invisible hand" toward the joint discovery of a hidden system of things.‎

Page 173 - John G. Kemeny, J. Laurie Snell, and Gerald L. Thompson, Introduction to Finite Mathematics (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1957), pp.‎

Page 43 - ... itself. The effectiveness of a group of helpers will then exceed that of any isolated member, to the extent to which some member of the group will always discover a new chance for adding a piece to the puzzle more quickly than any one isolated person could have done by himself. Any attempt to organize the group of helpers under a single authority would eliminate their independent initiatives and thus reduce their joint effectiveness to that of the single person directing them from the centre....‎

Bibliographic information

• Title: Scientific Literacy and the Myth of the Scientific Method; Illini books
• Author: Henry H. Bauer
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press, 1992
• ISBN: 0252064364, 9780252064364
• Length: 180 pages
• Subjects: Science / Philosophy & Social Aspects; Science / Research & Methodology; Technology & Engineering / General