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The Scientific Method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena and acquiring knowledge, as well as correcting/integrating previous knowledge. It involves gathering observable, empirical and measurable evidence, the collection of data through observation and experimentation, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.

Scientists presume that all of nature is orderly, and can be understood and explained by general laws. These laws can be discovered through deductive and inductive methods using observation, hypotheses and experimentation.

- Scientists put forward hypotheses to explain what is observed.

- They then conduct experiments to test these hypotheses

- The steps taken in the experiment must be capable of replication and the results emerge as the same. What is discovered may lead to a new hypothesis.

Elimination of plausible alternatives. This is a gradual process that requires repeated experiments by multiple researchers who must be able to replicate results in order to corroborate them. All hypotheses and theories are, in principle, subject to disproof.

Thus, there is a point at which there might be a consensus about a particular hypothesis or theory, yet it must in principle remain tentative. As a body of knowledge grows and a particular hypothesis or theory repeatedly brings predictable results, confidence in the hypothesis or theory increases.

Strengths of the Scientific Method

Scientific statements can be independentlyverified by others. Science deals in facts and has evidence and proof to support its claims. The process for gaining knowledge is ordered: experiments are repeatable. Science is unbiased - it is not out to prove anything but to find the facts/truth about phenomena. Science is empirical: people can see things for themselves. Sciences uses models to explain things in an understandable manner. Science uses objects and experiments which are able to be understood by our senses.

Weaknesses of the Science Method

Scientists are human and can be unintentionally biased; total objectivity is impossible. Plenty of scientific theories have been proved wrong e.g. Ptolemy's view of the universe was overturned by Copernicus. Science is always changing, and so we can never be 100% certain of what it claims. The use of models to represent something (e.g. atom) is limiting. Science uses our senses and our senses can be mistaken e.g. looking down a railroad track we think that the lines intersect when they don't in fact. Science cannot answer all the questions of life; human yearning, the existence of evil, courage or the meaning of life. We can never understand something as it really is because our very presence affects what is being studied.

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