Outline of scientific method

Nature of scientific method

• Science
• Philosophy of science
• Sociology of knowledge
• Process of science
• Knowledge

  Elements of scientific method

Observation

• Scientific method
• Causation
• Investigation
• Measurement

  Hypothesis

• pro:Karl Popper
• *Falsifiability
• con:Paul Feyerabend
• Statistical hypothesis testing

  Experiment

• Laboratory
• Laboratory techniques
• Design of experiments
• Scientific control
• Natural experiment
• Observational study
• Field experiment
• Self-experimentation
• * Self-experimentation in medicine
• Placebo effect

  Theory

• Scientific theory

  Prediction

• Prediction
• *Bayesian inference - subjective use of statistical reasoning
• * Deductive reasoning
• * Retrodiction

  Evaluation by scientific community

• Peer review
• Medical peer review

  Scientific method concepts

Empirical methods

• Empiricism
• Robert Grosseteste
• Peter Parker
• Bitoy's method
• Empirical validation
• Operationalization

  Use of statistics

• Uncomfortable science — Inference from a limited sample of data
• Exploratory data analysis
• Confirmatory data analysis

  Paradigm change

• Thomas Kuhn
• * The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
• * Paradigm
• * Paradigm shift

  Problem of induction

• Inductive reasoning appears to lie at the core of scientific method, yet also appears to be invalid.
• David Hume was the person who first pointed out the problem of induction.
• Karl Popper offered one solution, Falsifiability

  Scientific creativity

• Tacit knowledge

  Deviations from the scientific method

• Bad science
• Junk science
• Pseudoscience
• Pathological science
• Fringe science

  Critique of scientific method

• Paul Feyerabend argued that the search for a definitive scientific method was misplaced, and even counterproductive.
• Imre Lakatos attempted to bridge the gap between Popper and Kuhn.
• Sociology of scientific knowledge
• Scientism

  Relationship of scientific method to technology

• Science and technology studies
• Theories of technology

  Aesthetics in the scientific method

• Elegance
• Occam's razor

  History of scientific method

Publications

• Ibn al-Haytham's Book of Optics
• Avicenna's The Canon of Medicine
• Roger Bacon's Opus Majus
• Francis Bacon's Novum Organum

  Persons influential in the development of scientific method

• Alhazen
• Francis Bacon
• Galileo Galilei
• René Descartes
• Charles Sanders Peirce

  Why didn't the scientific method arise elsewhere?

• China
• Greece
• India
• Korean Peninsula
• Malay Archipelago
• Mesoamerica
• Sub-Saharan Africa