Definition of scientific method – What it is, Meaning and Concept

The concept of method comes from greek methods (“road” or “via”) and refers to means used to reach a certain goal.

Scientific, for its part, is the adjective that mentions what is linked to science (a set of techniques and procedures that are used to produce knowledge).

The scientific methodTherefore, it refers to the series of stages that must be followed to obtain valid knowledge from a scientific point of view, using instruments that are reliable. What this method does is minimize the influence of subjectivity of the scientist in his work.

The scientific method is based on the precepts of falsifiability (indicates that any proposition of science must be susceptible to being falsified) and reproducibility (An experiment must be able to be repeated in indistinct places and by any subject).

Specifically, we can establish that the aforementioned scientific method was a technique or a way of research that made an appearance in the seventeenth century. This is an initiative pioneered by the great Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei, who is considered the father of science thanks to the set of astronomical observations he made and also to his improvement of the telescope.

However, for many, although he was the first to use the aforementioned method at hand, there were others before this character who used techniques to analyze the reality that surrounded them that was quite similar to that form. Among these would be found, for example, Leonardo da Vinci, a universal genius and master of the Renaissance.

For many, the main hallmarks that define and give meaning to the scientific method are the following:

It is based on laws that have been deduced by man, hence the validity of the entire process is determined from the daily experience of its practice and use.

It uses Mathematics as a fundamental key to establish the corresponding relationships between the different variables.

It never refers to absolute certainties, quite the contrary. It develops and functions from the observable.
Thanks to it, laws can be made that allow us human beings to know correctly not only what was the past but also the future. And, by giving it certain values, we will know what is going to happen to a variable.

Among the necessary steps that make up the scientific method, are the observation (the researcher must appeal to his senses to study the phenomenon in the same way in which it is shown in reality), the induction (starting from the observations, the scientist must extract the particular principles from them), the I raise a hypothesis (arising from one’s own observation), the demonstration or refutation of the same and the presentation of the thesis (the Scientific theory).

Among the different types of scientific methods, the experimental, the dialectical, the empirical-analytical, the historical, the phenomenological and the hermeneutical. Each one has its applications and has its own field of action in which it is valid or more useful than the rest.