Roger Bacon, who, it should be noted, was a good son of the Church, was the first of the empiricists who inspired the development of what became known as the scientific method. This "method" involves primarily OBSERVATION and MEASUREMENT.
Yes, data must be gathered systematically and hypotheses formed, but without the ability to OBSERVE and MEASURE there is no science;
the fancy statistics and clever hypotheses are meaningless.
Good science is also about WHAT and HOW, not WHY. It is this latter question that leads people down the rabbit hole of philosophy. If there is no agreement on WHAT is happening, the other questions are immaterial.
Good science is not about , "Yes, but...." Questions need to be specific enough so that the answers stand on their own--YES or NO. It is this tendency to overgeneralize--a major weapon of the ignorant--that leads to scientific illiteracy.
And good science is NOT about "majority opinion." The majority is often wrong.
OBSERVE and MEASURE.
Thanks, Rog!
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