Twixt method and madness

Thomas Nickles

pp. 41-67

in: Nancy J. Nersessian (ed), The process of science, Berlin, Springer, 1987

Abstract

For years I have urged that there is more to scientific method than meets the philosophical eye. Some highly touted conceptions of method — the hypothetical-deductive (H-D) method, for instance — are remarkably thin when it gets down to details. For when one studies real scientific cases of problem solving and theory construction, the methodological features are almost always more substantive and more interesting than what one reads in general methodological accounts. There are more things in heaven and earth..."