Epistemology and UNIT 2 SCIENTIFIC METHOD AND ITS Gender-Based Analysis CRITIQUE Renu Addlakha Structure 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Objectives 2.3 The Classical Scientific Method 2.4 Brief History of the Classical Scientific Method 2.5 Basic Steps in the Classical Scientific Method 2.6 Classical Scientific Method and Social Science Research 2.7 Critique of the Scientific Method 2.8 Feminist Critique of the Scientific Method 2.9 Let Us Sum Up 2.10 Glossary 2.11 Unit End Questions 2.12 References 2.13 Suggested Readings 2.1 INTRODUCTION After reading about what is feminist and gender based research in the previous unit, let us read about another associated aspect of conventional research that is scientific method. The units looks into what is meant by this term and how method qualified to named be named as scientific method evolved with the passage of time. The unit then dwells upon the steps of scientific method followed by it’s critique from a feminist perspective too. Before moving ahead, lets glance through the objectives of reading this unit. 2.2 OBJECTIVES At the end of this unit, you will be able to: • Describe the classical scientific method; • Apply the classical scientific method in women and gender studies research; • Explain feminist critique of the scientific method; and • Use the basic steps of the scientific method in conceptualising a research problem in women and gender studies. 25 Feminist and Gender Based Research 2.3 THE CLASSICAL SCIENTIFIC METHOD Do you have answers to questions like: • How is the world understood? • How is reality gauged? • How is knowledge gained? Over the past three hundred years since the Enlightenment (go to glossary to know more about it), the ‘scientific method’ has emerged as the predominant, universally accepted approach to acquiring knowledge. As against religious faith, magic and superstition, the scientific method is a way of arriving at an empirical, impartial and reliable representation of the world. The basic assumptions of the scientific method are that reality is objective and consistent, that human beings have the capacity to perceive reality accurately and that rational explanations exist for understanding this reality. Essentially, it involves the application of a set of standardised procedures for asking questions, gathering information or ‘data’ to answer the questions and testing the validity, reliability and consistency of the results. Different modes of logical reasoning, existing theories and laws, classification and statistical procedures are used in combination to operationalise the scientific method with the aim of arriving at ‘truth’. In this Unit you will read a detailed description of this method, including a critique, to enable you to drawn upon it for your research. The classical scientific method broadly refers to a set of procedures and techniques for acquiring knowledge. Historically, the foundations of this method were laid during the Enlightenment when European thought moved from a magico-religious understanding of reality to one dominated by reason and science. It involves positing logical connections between phenomena, gathering empirical and measurable evidence, confirming or refuting the proposed connections. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the scientific method as ‘as a method or procedure that has characterised natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement and experiment, and the formulation, testing and modification of hypotheses’. Generality, scientific method should give results that are not only capable of verification by others, but also that have universal applicability under similar conditions. Science is not concerned with individual cases or instances but with classes and groups of objects and events of which the individual is only a specimen. 26 Box No. 2.1 Scientific Method and Its Critique ‘Scientific method refers to a body of techniques for investigating a phenomenon, acquiring new knowledge or correcting and integrating previous knowledge’ (Goldhaber and Nieto 2010: 940). The Italian scientist Galileo (1564-1642) is considered the founder of the scientific method. Let us now read the historical background of emergence of scientific method in the realm of research. 2.4 BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CLASSICAL SCIENTIFIC METHOD The scientific method is not a purely modern invention because ancient Egyptian documents describe application of empirical methods in astronomy, mathematics and medicine. Greek philosopher Thales (624 BC–546 BC) rejected religious, magical and supernatural explanations. He proclaimed that every event has a natural cause. Another Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC) is regarded as the inventor of the scientific method because of his detailed study of logic. Experimental methods were developed by Islamic scholars like Alhazen (965 -1040 AD) who worked on optics and physiology. The development of the scientific method as the principal mode of acquiring knowledge emerged during the Renaissance through the works of numerous pioneering scientists and philosophers such as Nicolaus Copernicus (1473- 1543) who showed that it was not the earth but the sun which was the centre of the solar system; William Harvey (1578-1657) who described in accurate detail the functioning of the human circulatory system, Robert Boyle (1627-1691) regarded by many as the ‘Father of Modern Chemistry’ and many others who performed controlled experiments providing elaborate details concerning procedure, apparatus and observations. Perhaps, the most well known of these great scientists is without doubt Isaac Newton (1942-1727). Francis Bacons’s Novum Organum (1620) and Rene Descartes (1637) Discourse on Method provided the theoretical foundation of the classical scientific method. In contrast to faith, dogma and tradition embodied in religious belief and superstition, these thinkers advocated what would today be called the ‘scientific temper’. The basic features of the scientific temper are • A belief in an underlying order in nature that is knowable through reason. • The idea that every natural phenomenon has a cause which can be known. • The universal accessibility to understanding nature through a set of methodological procedures based on observation, measurement, classification, experimentation, verification and prediction. 27 Feminist and Gender Truth is not based on blind faith in the word of God found in the scriptures Based Research but available to anyone following the method(s) of science. For example, the geocentric model of the solar system was replaced by the heliocentric model proposed by Copernicus which was based on observation of planetary motions through telescopes, while the earlier theory was based on religious faith not backed by actual observation. Science is conceptualized as an objective enterprise and the scientific approach aims to minimize the influence of bias of the individual scientist on the results of the research. Before proceeding ahead, take up the following exercise. Check Your Progress: i) What is understood by scientific method and scientific temper ? ii) What are the main features of the scientific method and its approach to knowledge. In the next section, you will read about the basic steps that need to be carried out in conducting research in the classical scientific method. 28 Scientific Method and Its 2.5 BASIC STEPS IN THE CLASSICAL SCIENTIFIC Critique METHOD You have read in the earlier section that the scientific method consists of systematic observation, definition, classification, measurement, analysis and interpretation. These activities are performed in a standardised sequential manner from the conceptualisation of a research question, developing a research design for answering them, interpretation of the results and prediction and verification of the same. Box No 2.2 Scientific knowledge is cumulative or incremental in the sense that existing theories are fertile sources of new hypotheses, which are subjected to experimental verification leading to the development of new theories and laws. The critical characteristic of the scientific method lies in the procedure or steps involved in proposing hypotheses to explain phenomena, and designing experimental studies to test them in such a fashion that we may arrive at universally accepted facts. The procedure should enable other researchers to arrive at the same results when doing the experiment under similar conditions. This section will familiarise you with the various steps involved in the classical scientific method. The main steps or stages of the application of the scientific method are: 1) Observation and description of phenomenon; 2) Formulation of a hypothesis to explain the phenomenon. In the classical scientific method of which physics is the paradigmatic example, it takes the form of a causal mechanism or mathematical relation; 3) Using the hypothesis to predict existence of other phenomenon or the results of new observations; 4) Performance of experiments to test the hypothesis (see Glossary) by several impendent researchers. If all the researchers come to the same results, then the hypothesis will become a theory or law. Experimental verification is the key for the success of the scientific method. Science evolves gradually building upon existing knowledge. Scientific theories vary in the extent to which they have been experimentally tested and for how long and in their acceptance in the scientific community. All scientific theory is closely tied to empirical findings, and hence always remains