Scientific Method The Hypothetico-Experimental Laboratory Procedure
There remains only the obligation to thank those who have helped me with specific suggestions and the editors who have kindly granted permission to reprint material which first appeared in the pages of their journals. To the former group belong Alan B. Br
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by
JAMES K. FEIBLEMAN Tulane University
• MARTINUS NIJHOFF / THE HAGUE / 1972
© 1972 by Martinus Nijhoff, The Hague, Netherlands All rights reserved, including the right to translate or to reproduce this book or parts thereof in any form
ISBN-13: 978-90-247-1200-7 DOl: 10.1007/978-94-010-2758-8
e-ISBN-13: 978-94-010-2758-8
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
VI
PREFACE
There remains only the obligation to thank those who have helped me with specific suggestions and the editors who have kindly granted permission to reprint material which first appeared in the pages of their journals. To the former group belong Alan B. Brinkley and Max O. Hocutt Portion of chapters I and VI were published in Philosophy of Science; of chapters IV and V in Perspectives in Biology and Medicine; of chapter VIII in Dialectica; of chapter IX in The British lournal for the Philosophy of Science; and of chapter XIII in Synthese. J.K.F. New Orleans, 1971
PREFACE
In this book I have tried to describe the scientific method, understood as the hypothetico-experimental technique of investigation which has been practiced so successfully in the physical sciences. It is the first volume of a three-volume work on the philosophy of science, each of which, however, is complete and independent. A second volume will contain an account of the domain in which the method operates and a history of empiricism. A third volume will be devoted to the philosophy of science proper: the metaphysics and epistemology presupposed by the method, its logical structure, and the ethical implications of its results. Any attempt to describe the experimental method of discovery, as practiced in the physical, chemical and biological sciences, must encounter many difficulties as well as owe its details to many sources. A comprehensive effort is the work of an age; in so far as this book fulfills its ambitions, it represents the labors of many men, and the author's contribution appears chiefly in the point of view from which the abundance of material was organized. A decision to dispense with footnotes was reached only after considering how widespread was the debt owed to others. There were conversations with scientists, and innumerable sources were consulted. An obligation must be acknowledged to Alexis Carrel and to B. Efron as well as to many others whose opinion proved so stimulating and suggestive, notably J. L. Edwards, Albert Einstein, R. I. Dorfman, W. L. Duren, Jr., F. Gonseth, B. J. Pettis, and A. J. Reck. They are not responsible for the final opinions expressed here. No doubt as the result of much reading it is possible that sometimes in the following pages ideas have been borrowed and assimilated unwittingly, and then presented in a light that might allow them to be thought novel. If so, apologies are in order. On the other hand, a claim to originality has to be put forward for the scheme of the whole as well as for many of the details. The systematic and the intuitive often rub shoulders indiscriminately here.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Preface CHAPTER
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.
