The Scientific Revolution and the Development of the Modern Scientific Method

THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN SCIENTIFIC METHOD
Student’s Name
Class Information
Date
Through time, human beings have been involved in the constant process of observing, gathering data, assessment, and action-taking. From picking a shirt to wear to choosing career paths, humans make decisions based on existing information and act upon these decisions to go on with our daily tasks. With the great mixing pot of human decisions and actions, the likelihood of events changes with every action. Because of this, it can be argued that we live in a mathematically-based world, which, as Descartes described it, has: "…certainty and the incontrovertibility of its proofs”. Historical accounts show us that many people have attempted to describe this essential process that humans undertake at every turn. This process is the scientific method, and humans employ this process even without the knowledge that they are doing so. The modern scientific method is considered a dogma on which scientific reasoning is founded on, and its conception served as one of the most radical transformations involved in the field of science.[Descartes, René, and Ian Maclean, A Discourse on the Method. (Oxford University Press. 2006), 9.]
Early Developments of the Scientific Method
European scientists are the primary pioneers of the development of the scientific method. Scientists and philosophers like Descartes, Bacon, Galileo, Newton, and many others have attempted to capture the principles involved in the scientific method and condense information to explain the basis of scientific thought. However, the inner workings of science have been studied by many, even prior to the Aristotelian age. Aristotle’s deductive reasoning was the governing principle in early science, and it attempted to gather conclusions based on premises. Despite its prominence, arguments against Aristotelian deductive reasoning arose because of the possibility of false conclusions, which meant that the premises were poorly constructed or were simply not true. While this method existed and was considered authoritative for at least a thousand years, revolutionary scientists that challenged this method proposed an alternative that radically changed the field of science.[McGrew, Timothy, Marc Alspector-Kelly, and Fritz Allhoff. "Scientific Inference and the Knowledge of Essential Natures." In Philosophy of Science: An Historical Anthology, 44-48. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell., 2009, 45.]
Entering the Scientific Revolution
The Scientific Revolution is one of the most notable points in history where the development of science started accelerating. Prior to the Scientific Revolution, the main governing schools of thought were religion-based, and any developments were dictated by what is allowed by religious leaders. However, this is not to say that there was no science prior to the scientific revolution. Scientific areas like Astronomy, Medicine, Taxonomy, Electricity, Chemistry, and Physics have been studied by scholars for thousands of years ago in an attempt to understand the workings of the world around them.
The bulk of religion-based concepts during Medieval times was reexamined and transformed significantly during the Scientific Revolution. During this time, each nation was said to have its advancements, primarily England and the Netherlands as the European countries said to have been “more scientific” in terms of advancements. According to quantitative research made on innovations made before, during, and after the Scientific Revolution, there is a continuous acceleration of scientific productivity and innovation that started climbing starting from the 1300s. That said, the trends for scientific advancements show a steady acceleration until the 1800s and likely even more until the present. As such, many consider the development of the scientific method to be the “central feature of the Scientific Revolution.”[de Courson, Benoit, and Nicolas Baumard. "Quanitfying the Scientific Revolution.", 2019, 9.] [Schuster, John A. "The Scientific Revolution." In Companion to the History of Modern Science, by Robert Olby, Geoffrey Cantor, John Christie and Jonathon Hodge. (London: Routledge, 1990), 220.]
Modern Scientific Method
The development of the Modern Scientific Method was started by an English politician named Sir Francis Bacon, who aimed to challenge Aristotelian authority based on deductive reasoning and propose an alternative method: inductive reasoning. He asserted the need to provide truthful conclusions rather than just provable or understandable ones. Bacon’s main thesis describes the need to reform scientific reasoning and change premise-conclusion-based processes and includes observation of facts, arrangement of information based on the presence and absence of characteristics, and rejection of characteristics that do not explain the phenomenon being tested. Going back to mathematic roots, the Aristotelian method relies on the certainty that the conclusion is true based on the strength or truthfulness of the premises. On the other hand, the Baconian method relies on the probability of the truthfulness of the conclusion based on what was observed and how many times the data is observable. Bacon used the works of others like Nicolaus Copernicus and Galileo Galilei to establish a method for analyzing specific information and gathering conclusions based on observable patterns. Regardless of the standing of Bacon’s scientific method, scientists from all over the world from then until now have different takes as to the logic behind inductive reasoning and its potency as a conveyor of knowledge.[Rossi, Paolo. Francis Bacon: From Magic to Science. (London: Routledge, 2008), 223.] [Bacon, Francis, Lisa Jardine, and Michael Silverthorne. Francis Bacon: The New Organon. (Cambridge University Press, 2000).] [Vickers, Brian. "Francis Bacon and the Progress of Knowledge." Journal of the History of Ideas (University of Pennsylvania Press) 53 (3), 1992, 502, 515.]
The Scientific Revolution was built on actions challenging ancient authorities for the sake of scientific advancement. The reengineering of how science was taught opened the minds of...