I. The scientific method has four stepsOriginally Posted by Rick
By this definition Physics is not science either, as nobody knows what exactly causes the equations to work. Plus, the functions used to be different before Quantum Theory and Einstein, so they can hardly be called "exact."No, that's not science (at least not a natural science, which is what most people refer to when they say "science"). Just because you do a correlation study of such and such variables doesn't make it science. You have to identify and experimentally prove exact causal mechanisms.
Well, well, at least grant us statistical analyses as proper science, won't you? You just wait until you get home!
I don't think it matters whether we call the social sciences "sciences" or not, because the exact same types of thinking are involved in the study of social phenomena as physical phenomena. Social scientists shouldn't be seen as a "lesser" form of scientists, as their task is equally, if not more difficult. Nor should "algorithmic empiricism" be viewed as the only kind of science worth existing. People want to understand why things happen, even if all the cause-and-effect mechanisms aren't understood.
The vast majority of the science you read about in textbooks is not descriptions of causal mechanisms, but simply descriptions of observable phenomena. "This is what this looks like," etc.
1. Observation and description of a phenomenon or group of phenomena.
2. Formulation of an hypothesis to explain the phenomena. In physics, the hypothesis often takes the form of a causal mechanism or a mathematical relation.
3. Use of the hypothesis to predict the existence of other phenomena, or to predict quantitatively the results of new observations.
4. Performance of experimental tests of the predictions by several independent experimenters and properly performed experiments.
based on this, the scientific method is an Se+Ti or Te activity. it should also be noted that a mathematical relation is often held to be a causal mechanism.
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