The Importance of the Scientific Method: A Case Study on Polywater | Papers Chemistry

Midterm Homework

The scientific method is of great importance in helping the scientific

community reach a common consensus, and the "polywater debate" will be discussed

and evaluated in this paper to understand the importance of this. First, judging by how

science has progressed throughout history, it seems that reasoned scientific judgments

are more acceptable compared to imaginary hypotheses, if not absolute certainty. If

someone wants to explain the success of scientists' work, they will have to refer to the

methods they use, which is reasoning, to justify their new knowledge. This, of course,

is due to the fact that many people rely on scientifically defined claims. This does not

mean people think that scientists are always right, even on scientific matters; they

know very well that scientists can make mistakes and will continue to make mistakes.

Rather, it is to say that people think scientific claims are credible.(Gower, 2012)

At the most elementary level, the scientific method is a simple, three-step

process where scientists examine nature. It begins by carefully observing some aspects

of nature, if something occurs that is not well understood, speculation is made about

its explanation, and then a way is found to test these speculations.

First, before starting to think of an explanation for something, it is necessary to

make sure that the facts surrounding the phenomenon being investigated are clearly

understood. This can only be done by observation, which is the first step of the

scientific method. The second step is to introduce a set of factors to explain something,

to explain how and why the thing in question is like this. When something is not well

understood, its explanation will also be ambiguous. Therefore, the first step in trying

to understand unexpected facts is to specify what is called an explanatory story, which,

if true, is a set of assumptions that will clarify the problem. Finally, how can one

determine whether an explanation is true or false? With the following trial strategy.

First, the outcome of the explanation, something that needs to happen, whether the

circumstances are properly regulated and whether the explanation is on the right track

is explored. An experiment is then performed, designed to determine whether the

predicted results will occur under these conditions. If the predicted results are reached,

there is good reason to believe that the explanation is correct. If the predicted results

are not achieved, this indicates that there are some initial reasons to suspect that the

explanation may be incorrect, or at least that the proposed explanation should be

changed.(Carey & Learning, 2004)

Although some of the researchers believe scientific method to be this three-step

process that has been described, some of them argues that constantly verifying the

hypothesis with experimental evidence would increase scientists‘ confidence in its

truth and begin to think of it as a reliable law, but it is nothing more than a roughly

sketched outline of what is called ‘the method of hypotheses’.(Gower, 1997) Since this

contradiction is not directly related to polywater, the polywater debate will be

discussed in this work with the general characteristics of the scientific method.

The Importance of the Scientific Method: A Case Study on Polywater, Papers of Chemistry