The modern scientific method is generally credited to Sir Francis Bacon, who is considered the father of the scientific method. He proposed the method in his 1620 treatise called Novum Organum. Bacon emphasized inductive reasoning, which involves making observations and using them to form broader conclusions. However, the scientific method was not invented by a single person at a single time; it developed over centuries with contributions from many thinkers. Key contributors before and after Bacon include:
- Aristotle (Ancient Greece), who championed empiricism and observation rather than pure rationalism.
- Roger Bacon (13th century), who emphasized experimentation and the cycle of observation, hypothesis, experimentation, and verification.
- René Descartes, who advocated for deductive reasoning and mathematical abstraction.
- Galileo Galilei and Isaac Newton, who put the method into practice during the Scientific Revolution, supporting observation and evidence as the basis for knowledge.
The scientific method evolved from the combination of empirical and rationalist approaches over time, influenced by thinkers from ancient Greece, medieval Islamic scholars such as Ibn al-Haytham, and European scientists of the Renaissance and Enlightenment periods.
