Scientific Method and Western Culture by Andrew Curry

July 22, 2014

  

The scientific method is a process in which critical thinking is used to test ideas with observations using a consistent series of steps. Western culture has developed into a culture based on reasoning, methodology, logic, critical thinking, and validation of the subject being discussed. Western culture has long used the scientific method dating back to the ancient Greeks. Ancients Greeks became focused innovation and invention through the use of science as well as new technologies. Using the scientific method these early scientists were able to recall past experiences, and based on those experiences makes hypotheses, gather data, and use the new data to to draw conclusions, and finally test the data repeatedly for predictive value.

Aristotle is considered to have first used what we today call the scientific method, he used measurement and observations as well as understanding that thought and reasoning must be applied with real world findings. Aristotle scrutinized everything from animal and plant species, to politics, and cultural systems already in place.

The scientific method has altered Western Culture in numerous ways. It has helped shape and mold everything we use, everything we build, everything we create. Western culture takes the newest technologies and systems we have in place and improves on them by finding better, more efficient, and environmentally friendly ways to create better products. Everything from the cars we drive, the buildings we work in, our cell phones, computers, televisions, and medical technologies have been advanced through the use of scientific method. Western civilization was the first to develop steam power. Steam was first used to power pumps, later used in engines, and finally to power factories. The cell phones we have today started as telegraphs, with inventors experimenting using clicking sounds in the form of code sent through a wire to communicate across distances that would have never before seemed possible. Later the telephone was developed using a transmitter and receiver. Cell phones evolved from telephones; wires have disappeared and cell phones can be taken anywhere to make a call or text.

Whether people realize it or not they use the scientific method every day, numerous times a day. It can be used in something as simple as determining what pizza you will order. First, you can recall past experiences of what pizzas you did or did not like from a certain pizza chain or the other. Second,  you may decide you will try a new pizza and enjoy it because you liked the other pizzas that you previously ordered. Third, you order the pizza and eat it; this is gathering your data. Fourth, you decide whether or not you liked or disliked the new pizza. Lastly, you can test the new pizza several times in order to get a good perspective on whether you truly like or dislike it.

The evolution of these devices and technologies have come about as result of the scientific method being improved on over time until newer,  and better products and technologies are created. The scientific method will continue to bring about new methods and technologies by building off what is already in place; while hopefully doing so in more environmentally sustainable ways to leave the planet a better place for generations to come.

  

References

 Martyn Shuttleworth(Aug 18, 2009). History of the Scientific Method. Retrieved Jul 23, 2014 from Explorable.com:https://explorable.com/history-of-the-scientific-method

 Bruce, Robert V. (1990),Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press.ISBN 0-8014-9691-8.

  Hills, Richard L. (1989).Power from Steam: A history of the stationary steam engine. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.ISBN0 521 34356 9.