Answering these questions, and thousands of others, is what the scientific method is all about.

Explaining Things

It is one thing to attribute the daily movement of the sun across the sky to the efforts of a Greek god. It is quite another to explain this movement using gravity and planetary orbits.

The great thing about the ability to explain is the resulting ability to predict. Knowing that the sun's movement is guided by the law of gravity makes it possible to predict its position tomorrow, next week, or next year. This information helps when doing things like flying to the moon.

Components of the Method

• Theory: The starting point, but also the end result, of doing science is the theory. A theory is a scientifically accepted, interrelated body of general principles used to explain and understand some aspect of the world. A theory creates a framework for investigating and explaining the world. It helps make sense out of what might appear to be random events. A theory offers an explanation for these events. It explains WHY things happen.


• Principles: Principles are generally accepted, verified, fundamental laws of nature. As a house is constructed from concrete, lumber, and nails, a theory is constructed from principles. To be a fundamental law of nature, a principle must capture a cause-and-effect relation about the workings of the world. One example might be something like, "people seek the greatest benefit at the lowest cost." The scientific method is essentially the process of building theories by identifying and verifying these fundamental laws of nature.


• World View: A world view contains fundamental, and unverifiable axioms, beliefs, and values about how the world works. Religious beliefs, political philosophies, and cultural conditioning are just a few of the components that go into a person's world view. These components are largely "accepted on faith" and cannot be tested or verified directly. Without a doubt, the best example of a world view component is the belief in God--a supreme, omniscient, omnipotent being. Another example is the presumption that human beings are basically good (as opposed to basically evil). These beliefs cannot be directly verified and must be accepted on faith.


• Hypotheses: Principles are the end result of a long, scrutinizing process that starts with hypotheses. A hypothesis is a reasonable proposition about the workings of the world that is inspired or implied by a theory and which may or may not be true. Hypotheses are generated from informed ignorance--informed, because they are implied by a theory that has been previously subjected to a great deal of scrutiny, but ignorance, because no one yet knows if the hypothesis is right.


• Verification: This gives rise to the fifth and last part of the scientific method, verification. To know if a hypothesis is right or wrong, comparison is made with data, empirical observations drawn from the real world. The scientific method is ultimately concerned with explaining the workings of the real world. Perhaps a Greek god carries the sun across the sky. Perhaps the sun's apparent trek across the sky is caused by the rotation of the earth. Both are hypothesized relations for the perceived motion of the sun. Which is correct? The only way to know is through verification and testing--to compare the hypotheses with what actually happens in the real world.

Verifying hypotheses with real world data is the crucial step in transforming a hypothetical relation into a fundamental law of nature--a principle. A hypotheses must pass the real-world-data test to become a principle. And this is the scientific method.

More than a Subject, a Process

In fact, science is more than a subject. It is a process. The scientific method can be applied to a wide range of subjects, including things like human behavior, the economy, and, in general, society. This scientific study of society gives rise to the social sciences. That is where economics can be found. It is a social science, the scientific study of society.

Science, whether physical or social, differs only in WHAT it studies, not HOW it studies. Science is not a specific subject, but a way of viewing the world. And this process, this scientific method, is the topic of the day.

A Word About Values

• First, subjective values often enter into the unverifiable axioms and world view that make up a scientific theory. Scientists tend to (unwittingly in some cases) develop theories that reflect their own subjective political, cultural, or religious beliefs.

• Second, subjective values often influence the specific topics studied using the scientific method. The topics that someone subjectively deems to be more important attract scientific resources, others do not.