Key Terms in Scientific Method and Philosophy

Core Concepts in Science and Philosophy

Experimental Nature

A characteristic of mechanistic science where scientists work with phenomena in a laboratory.

Aristotelian Causes

• Formal Cause: What something is; its essence.
• Material Cause: What something is made of (matter).
• Efficient Cause: What produced it.
• Final Cause: The purpose for which it exists.

Science

A model of human knowledge that seeks to find the causes of observed phenomena, establish universally valid concepts, and demonstrate them with rational arguments.

Empirical Sciences

Sciences that focus on the study of observable and verifiable facts from experience.

Formal Sciences

Sciences that study abstract objects and ideals resulting from the human mind.

Consistency

A relationship between things where there are no contradictions or differences between them.

Conservation

The principle that in nature, nothing is created or destroyed, only transformed.

Findings

The results obtained from testing a hypothesis.

Continuity

The state of not having stops or interruptions.

Quantitative Approach

A way of explaining science through properties of reality that can be measured and quantified.

Determinism

A school of thought arguing that all actions and events exist within an inexorable chain of cause and effect.

Faith

The attitude of those who believe they possess absolute truth.

Epistemology

The discipline that studies how scientific knowledge is produced (the study of science).

Geocentrism

A model explaining that the Earth is fixed at the center of the universe.

Heliocentrism

The theory arguing that the Sun is at the center of the universe, and the Earth, far from being still, is a planet that revolves around it.

Hypothesis

An assumption or tentative explanation proposed by a scientist to interpret or solve certain facts.

Indeterminism

An explanation of reality where events are not predetermined; the world is as it is, but it could be otherwise. This is the majority position in contemporary science.

Mechanicism

A theoretical model for the interpretation of nature.

Deductive Method

A scientific method where results are derived from general definitions by following rules of correct reasoning.

Hypothetico-Deductive Method

A method combining deductive and inductive models, following these steps:

• A problem is identified.
• Possible consequences are derived from a hypothesis.
• The consequences are compared with empirical facts.
• If they match, the result supports a law or theory. If not, other hypotheses are considered.

Technology

A body of high-level, complex technical knowledge and its results, ranging from genetics to artificial intelligence and computer engineering.