Jimdrix_Hendri

Among the general public and, frequently, in the educated media, one comes across naïve and uncritical praise for the “scientific method”. Often, accusation of violating the “method” is wielded to denigrate the viewpoint of a political opponent who supposedly offended against some prestigious, generally accepted norm of reasoning. I want to question the cogency of these arguments. My point is there is no agreed scientific method, as different sciences apply very different criteria in deciding what counts as valid explanation. The paradigm approach for life scientists, for instance, begins by subjecting a phenomenon of interest to patient and thoroughgoing observation. They carefully describe key features, categorise functional and structural commonalities, then organise the material into a cladogram of some sort, after which they feel satisfied claiming they understand the phenomenon. I come across this approach again and again in Aristotle, who started his intellectual adventure as a zoologist. For a physical scientist a biologist’s explanation is unconvincing. The physical sciences, with its strong emphasis on aetiology and relentless reductionism, raises questions not taken up in biology. Physicist are uncomfortable saying they know something until they can identify a small number of (ideally a single) exogenic factor/s giving rise to almost all the characteristics. I need to emphasise that these are generalisable templates for explanation that are found outside of physics and biology. Thus, from the point of view of exogency, Jared Diamond’s explanation for the early ascendancy of western Eurasia as the result of geographical advantages (prevalence of domesticable animals and highly nutritious plants, etc.) is deeply satisfying to a physicist, since further pursuit for a cause moves the discussion outside the original domain of from human differences into geography. Compare this with a statement like: 'France’s preference for a strong centralised government i