Question

what are the principles of scientific method used in a research. (mention and explain them in details)

Answer 1

THE PRINCIPLES OF SCIENTIFIC METHOD WHICH ARE USED IN RESEARCH ARE AS GIVEN BELOW :

1. Regularities:

It is believed in the scientific method that the phenomena occur in the universe in a regular and patterned manner. It is the task of science to ascertain these patterns in the natural world. A scientific study must be made public by making known to others as to how the conclusions are reached. Different individuals can investigate independents and are most likely to arrive at the same conclusion is nothing secret or personal about it because science is a collective, cooperative endeavour geared to the discovery of facts and unless the methodology of scientific enquiry is made public, it would not enable the fellow scientists or critics to replicate the initial enquiry for verification.

2. Empiricism:

Empiricism implies that a scientific investigation must be conducted empirically. In other words, our views about some or the other aspect of society must be based on clear and definite factual evidence. Truth is established on the basis of evidence. Conclusion is admitted when it is based on evidence. Such evidence must be produced by observing the relevant social reality with the help of human senses, such as sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Relevant data are gathered by observation and experimentation.

Nothing is left to speculation. Social reality may, at present, be observed directly with the help of human senses or indirectly with the support of some instruments so as to aid and extend the ability to observe. The validity and reliability of data are thoroughly checked and carefully analyzed by employing appropriate methods. On the basis of the findings of analysis, conclusion is reached.

3. Use of Concepts:

Concepts are the building blocks of theory. A fact is a logical construct of concepts. A concept is abstracted from the sense perceptions and should not be confused with the phenomenon itself. Since the ordinary language fails to convey adequately the implications of scientific terms, science evolves its own language.

These linguistic apparatus of science are manipulated along with symbols with a view to contribute immensely to the established body of systematic knowledge. The scientist constantly depends upon relevant concepts for moving gradually from concrete sense data to the higher levels of abstraction.

4. Verifiability:

Verifiability presupposes that the phenomena must be capable of being observed and measured. Scientific method presupposes that knowledge in order to be valid should consist of propositions amenable to empiricism. All evidence must be based on observation. Science, being empirical, claims that knowledge must be referred to concrete human experiences so as to make verification possible.

Lundberg believes that, “if the verification of deduction involves condition of observation which is impracticable or impossible of attainment the theory is metaphysical rather than scientific.” In order to bring greater exactitude, verification must also be accompanied by measurement.

5. Objectivity:

By objectivity it is meant that the scientific investigation must not be influenced by the subjective biases of the investigator. Rather the phenomenon is observed in its true form. The man of science is committed to the belief that to go nearer to the goal of truth, he must above all things, believe that the phenomenon world is a reality, independent of beliefs, hopes or fear or fears of any individual, all of which we find out not by intuition and speculation but by actual observation.

According to Lundberg, “the first requisite of all sound knowledge is the determination and ability to get at naked facts and not to be influenced by mere appearances or by prevalent notions or by one’s wishes”.’ Objectivity is the hall mark of scientific method. Green visualises objectivity as “the willingness and ability to examine evidence dispassionately.”

The main criterion of objectivity is that the conclusion should not vary from person to person; all people should reach the same conclusion. The scientific man must above all things, have a detached view as the phenomena in which he himself is involved as on observer.

As the very purpose of science is to find out the naked truth, objectivity is fundamental to all sciences and essential for verification. In the words of Lundberg, “it permits repetition of observation under practically identical conditions. This facilitates the verification of observation by many observers.” Although objectivity apparently appears to be very easy, in real terms, it is very difficult to be achieved. Personal views, concepts and beliefs of the investigator do influence his study. Hence, scientific man must “above all things….strive at self-elimination in his judgment and provide an argument which is as true for each individual mind as his own.”

6. Ethical Neutrality:

Scientific method demands that the investigator maintains an ethically neutral attitude in his pursuit of knowledge. Science never passes normal judgment on facts by designating them as good and bad. In his professional capacity, the man of science is not supposed to take sides on issues of moral or ethical nature. Scientific method reserves science on normative questions. As Schroedniger says, “Science never imposes anything, science states. Science aims at nothing but making true and adequate statements about its objects.

7. Generality:

Principles evolved through scientific method are universal. The conclusions drawn through scientific investigation apply to all cases and all circumstances. The conclusions are not affected by the factors of time and space. In the words of MacIver, “Such a law is simply another name for a carefully described and uniformly recurring sequence of conditions.”

The scientist is constantly and necessarily obliged to discover “under the surface level of diversity the thread of uniformity.” The primary aim of science is to trace order in nature. To this end, science seeks to ascertain the common characteristics of types of objects and general laws or condition of events.”

Scientific principles hold true irrespective of the temporal and spatial order. “Science is not interested in individual objects or individual groups of objects as such” However, various branches of science do not attain the same level of generalization. The degree of maturity of science is directly proportional to its generalizing potential.

8. Predictability:

Science can make prediction by its logical reasoning and inferences establishing the cause and effect relationship among different phenomena. The foundation of science is based upon a faith in causality that the past and future belong to the same continuum. Based on the “law of uniformity of nature” stating that the nature will behave similarly under similar conditions, science believes that predictions about phenomena must rest on the bed-rock of the trend repeatedly observed.

It also believes that probably the same trend would manifest itself in some concrete effects. Predictability depends upon two essential conditions, such as the fixity of cause and effect relationship and the stability of causative factors. Prediction in the domain of science is grounded in the established knowledge concerning order among facts.

However, the scientific expectation may not always be accurate. Science can only make prediction about the state of things on the basis of the law of causation and law of uniformity of nature with certain degree of accuracy. “Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty, some most unsure, some nearly sure, some absolutely uncertain.”

9. Relativism:

Relativism implies that the results obtained through scientific method are never considered as absolute truths. Propositions found valid in the light of scientific method under certain circumstances may be questioned on the face of new evidence. Results of scientific investigation are only tentative and never considered as permanent.

They have got relative credibility as a proposition is considered valid so long as it is not refuted in the future. Relativism as a principle of scientific method further holds that no notions are sacred to the scientist, no propositions are privileged to the researcher or no truths are absolute to an investigator.

10. Skepticism:

Skepticism is that principle of science which holds that the scientist must possess the capacity to view skeptically the validity of prevailing social theories. He must not be swayed away by the popularity of a given proposition despite its general acceptance. The scientist is free to be skeptical of any explanation on the ground that they not only lack in authenticity but also sufficiency of evidence.

11. Quantification:

All observations in the domain of science must be quantified for, precision. All sets of verified generalizations which form the basis for scientific inquiry are to be accepted in mathematical language.

12. Systematization:

While dealing with the empirical truths and analyzing the true nature of these empirical objects, science follows a systematic and formal method. Such a rigorous method of analysis and generalization enables the votaries of science to re-examine the results in different occasions. In the realm of science a couple of methods are widely prevalent-inductive and deductive.

In inductive method, the particular truths are gathered gradually and continually in empirical situation till the most general truth are established. On the contrary, in deductive methods the truth of the propositions is not questioned, conclusions are drawn from those self-evident propositions.

Thus induction proceeds from particular to general and the reverse process is evinced in the deductive method for the discovery of the truth that lies concealed within a set of statements. For the extreme reductionists, a set of self evident propositions stand at the head of the system and from these other theorems are to be derived by the process of reasoning.

On the other hand the extreme inductions or empiricist’s view of the matter is that science must construct its axioms from sense data moving from particulars to arrive, at the most general axioms in a gradual and continual manner. The true method of science is induction for deduction with a view to reconstructions because it borrows the elements of formal truth’ and ‘material truth’ from deduction and inductions respectively and thereafter applies logical reasoning for establishing its own truth.

Larabee holds in this regard, “If extreme rationalist (deductions) is like a spider spinning out theories from within, the extreme empiricist (inductions) is to be compared to….an ant which piles useless heaps of facts. Better than either the spider or the ant is the bee, which selectively gathers pollen and transforms it into honey.

13. Public Methodology:

The method used in scientific inquiry is always made public because science is a public institution and a collective, co-operative endeavour aiming at the discovery of facts. Science not only learns from successes, but also from failures as it is a method of knowing which