(except from my next volume)
I had spent most of my childhood making observations that I had to verify, by testing if it was reality or some sort of an illusion, where most children do not remember having to apply their mind to the task as this is a natural process in all human beings. Where as I remembered a simplified version of this methodology and applied it to numerous optical and scientific illusions intuitively before I could even codify the process in writing as an adult. Much of what I had learned about what the Scientific Method is, was gleaned from extensive reading of countless journals, books and encyclopedia as I was growing up in my childhood, I cannot quote a professor or institute, only Sir Francis Bacon and my own personal life experience.
Historically Sir Francis Bacon(1561-1626) was the man who had codified the Scientific Method which was known in his time as the Baconian Method. Briefly the Scientific Method are steps that help scientists conduct understanding and clarity in the use of dynamic technology and material sciences, which is made up of seven main steps:
1 – State the problem,
2 – Research the problem.
3 – State your hypothesis,
4 – Do an experiment,
5 – Analyze data,
6 – Conclude the results,
7 – Form a conclusion.
Bacon also had devised what he called the idols of the mind, that could be called delusions or as he describes as false images. These four obstructions must be overcome to have a clear path of correct scientific reasoning. I have added a fifth as my way of addressing the intellectual dishonesty that has been foisted on our education system by the use of symbols.
Idols of the Tribe (Idola tribus)
This is humans’ tendency to perceive more order and regularity in systems than truly exists, and is due to people following their preconceived ideas about things.
Idols of the Cave (Idola specus)
This is due to individuals’ personal weaknesses in reasoning due to particular personalities, likes and dislikes.
Idols of the Marketplace (Idola fori)
This is due to confusion in the use of language and taking some words in science to have a different meaning than their common usage.
Idols of the Theater (Idola theatri)
This is the following of uncorrected dogma and not asking questions about the world.
Idols of the Symbol (Idola signo)
This is the misunderstanding of visual mnemonics due to uncorrected use of symbols, conflating the symbol with a preconceived negative or positive outcome.
After a lot of thought of Bacon’s ideas, they revealed to me another view of our problematic interaction with our observations and rational framework. There is a way of seeing our limitations of reasoning and finding that they hold our life in a type of prison built from our needs or ideas within our existence.
Prisons of the Mind (Carcer Cogitatio)
The imagined truth being our only limitations in our mind.
Prisons of Ideas (Carcer Notio)
The ill defined and illogical ideas limiting our perceptions of reality.
Prisons of the Emotions (Carcer Motus)
The uncontrolled reflexes within our emotive being.
Prisons of Sustenance (Carcer Victus)
The essential and incessant need to maintain regulated nourishment.
Prisons of the Environment (Carcer Ambitu)
The real need to have levels of protection from all forms of physical damage.
These prisons I have listed are very real to most people, they are just not aware they are inside them, while we can all agree that Sustenance and Environment are two that we are very intimately connected with but the others are no so obvious. The Mind Prison is simple to understand if you believe the Earth is flat, a limitation that is built from a lack of understanding and verifiable information. The Ideas Prison, is more related to our notions of politics, philosophy and poetry, where ideas have consequences to the passage of life, like the 120 million crucified in the 20th century for the flawed Marxist doctrines. The Emotions Prison, is by no means an easy hurdle to leap over as each one of us has either unfulfilled, exasperated or subjugated emotional issues to some degree, these we will render a mental cage to keep those feelings from destroying our lives.
The following definitions of the Scientific Method can be compared to text book versions and should be much simpler and clearer than most.
I have separated it into nine distinct headings, each can be considered recursive until it satisfies its criteria of application. These are my own versions, in the nine steps of the artists natural scientific method go something like this:
1 Observation of Interest
Make an single observation or many observations.
2 Facets of Observation
Ask questions about the observations and gather information.
3 Hypothesis
Form a hypothesis, a tentative description of what has been observed, and formulate predictions based on that hypothesis.
4 Prediction
Build the hypothesis with the predictions into an experiment that can be reproduced. Building a theory.
5 Analysis
Analyse the data and draw conclusions; accept or reject the hypothesis or modify the hypothesis if necessary. Adjust theory to fit facts.
6 Experiment
Physically reproduce the experiment until there are no discrepancies between observations and theory. Design for Replication of methods and results.
7 Variables
Dependent and independent variables are brought to a reduced set and general formula are created. Simplification of formula and universality is the prime reasoning.
8 Conclusion
Does it conform to the real world? Does it operate in a different environment or frame of reference?
9 Reality
This is now a law of nature as described by man, simplified to its primal state and understood intrinsically by man in all frames of reference. The extended boundary of theory has been overcome, it is considered a fact.
This brings me the words and meanings of “Science”? Science is not a category of study, it is a process of inquiry with deductions. Science is a method not a vocation. When something is Scientific it means it can have the Scientific Method applied to it without difficulty and its conclusions adhere to its methodology.
A Scientist is someone who apples the Scientific Method to an observation. A Professor of Science is someone who can apply the Scientific Method with expertise.
The implications of a “Theory”, firstly it must have self consistency, agreement with observations and have universal usefulness, alas, as it is only a theory as it only conforms to the first four of the steps required in the Scientific Method. Much of modern science is now “Theoretical”, they are trapped in the fifth stage and are given special compensation for digging up new “Theories”, creating a branch called “Theoretical Physics”. These are now a protected class defined by Cultural Marxism, as the real scientists who follow the Scientific truth and its complete Scientific Method are under the mercy of authoritarian political correctness and a false religion of “Scientism”.
Tags: science, Scientific Method, Sir Francis Bacon, theory
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