Darwin and scientific method

pp. 3-14

in: James K. Feibleman, Paul G. Morrison, Andrew J. Reck, Harold N. Lee, Edward Ballard, Carl H. Hamburg, Robert C. Whittemore, Centennial year number, Berlin, Springer, 1959

Abstract

The knowledge of methodology, which is acquired by means of formal education in the various disciplines, is usually communicated in abstract form. Harmony and counterpoint in musical composition, the axiomatic method of mathematics, the established laws in physics or in chemistry, the principles of mathematics — all these are taught abstractly. It is only when we come to the method of discovery in experimental science that we find abstract communication failing. The most recent as well as the greatest successes of the experimental sciences have been those scored in modern times, but we know as yet of no abstract way to teach the scientific method. The astonishing pedagogical fact is that this method has never been abstracted and set forth in a fashion which would permit of its easy acquisition.