Scientific method Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Early empiricism === Different early expressions of [[empiricism]] and the scientific method can be found throughout history, for instance with the ancient [[Stoics]], [[Epicurus]],<ref name=Asmis>Elizabeth Asmis (1985) ''Epicurus' Scientific Method''. Cornell University Press</ref> [[Alhazen]],{{efn-ua|name= vacuum| Twenty-three hundred years ago, Aristotle proposed that a [[vacuum]] did not exist in nature; thirteen hundred years later, [[#alhazen|Alhazen disproved Aristotle's hypothesis]], using experiments on [[refraction]],<ref name=treatiseOnLight2>Alhacen (c.1035) ''Treatise on Light'' (رسالة في الضوء) as cited in [[Shmuel Sambursky]], ed. (1975) [https://archive.org/details/physicalthoughtf0000unse/page/136/mode/2up Physical thought from the Presocratics to the quantum physicists : an anthology], p.137</ref> thus deducing the existence of [[outer space]].<ref name= alhacenOnRefraction4.28 />}}{{efn|name= alhacenCharacterizes| ''[[Book of Optics]]'' (''circa'' 1027) After anatomical investigation of the human eye, and an exhaustive study of human visual perception, Alhacen characterizes the first postulate of [[Euclid's Optics]] as 'superfluous and useless' (Book I, [6.54] —thereby overturning Euclid's, Ptolemy's, and Galen's [[Emission theory (vision)|emission theory of vision, using logic and deduction from experiment. He showed Euclid's first postulate of Optics to be hypothetical only, and fails to account for his experiments.]]), and deduces that light must enter the eye, in order for us to see. He describes the [[camera obscura]] as part of this investigation.}}{{efn-ua|1=[[Alhazen]] argued the importance of forming questions and subsequently testing them: "How does light travel through transparent bodies? Light travels through transparent bodies in straight lines only... We have explained this exhaustively in our ''[[Book of Optics]]''.{{efn|name= straightLinesOnly }} But let us now mention something to prove this convincingly: the fact that light travels in straight lines is clearly observed in the lights which enter into dark rooms through holes.... [T]he entering light will be clearly observable in the dust which fills the air.<ref name=treatiseOnLight>Alhazen, ''Treatise on Light'' ({{lang|ar|رسالة في الضوء}}), translated into English from German by M. Schwarz, from [http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/dmg/periodical/pageview/30949 "Abhandlung über das Licht"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191230190424/http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/dmg/periodical/pageview/30949 |date=2019-12-30 }}, J. Baarmann (editor and translator from Arabic to German, 1882) ''[[Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft]]'' Vol '''36''' as quoted in {{harvp|Sambursky|1975|p=136}}.</ref> * He demonstrated his conjecture that "light travels through transparent bodies in straight lines only" by placing a straight stick or a taut thread next to the light beam, as quoted in {{harvp|Sambursky|1975|p=136}} to prove that light travels in a straight line. * [[David Hockney]] cites Alhazen several times as the likely source for the portraiture technique using the [[camera obscura]], which Hockney rediscovered with the aid of an optical suggestion from [[Charles M. Falco]]. ''Kitab al-Manazir'', which is Alhazen's ''[[Book of Optics]]'', at that time denoted ''Opticae Thesaurus, Alhazen Arabis'', was translated from Arabic into Latin for European use as early as 1270. Hockney cites Friedrich Risner's 1572 Basle edition of ''Opticae Thesaurus''. Hockney quotes Alhazen as the first clear description of the camera obscura.<ref name= truthSought4sake >{{harvp|Hockney|2006|p=240}}: "Truth is sought for its own sake. And those who are engaged upon the quest for anything for its own sake are not interested in other things. Finding the truth is difficult, and the road to it is rough." – [[Alhazen]] ([[Ibn Al-Haytham]] 965 – c. 1040) ''[[Critique of Ptolemy]]'', translated by S. Pines, ''Actes X Congrès internationale d'histoire des sciences'', Vol '''I''' Ithaca 1962, as quoted in {{harvp|Sambursky|1975|p=139}}. (This quotation is from Alhazen's critique of Ptolemy's books ''[[Almagest]]'', ''Planetary Hypotheses'', and {{cite book |title=Ptolemy's Theory of Visual Perception: An English Translation of the Optics |publisher=American Philosophical Society |isbn=9780871698629 |year=1996 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mhLVHR5QAQkC&dq=Opticae+thesaurus+alhazen&pg=PA59 |translator=A. Mark Smith |access-date=2021-11-27 |archive-date=2023-11-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231129112635/https://books.google.com/books?id=mhLVHR5QAQkC&dq=Opticae+thesaurus+alhazen&pg=PA59#v=onepage&q=Opticae%20thesaurus%20alhazen&f=false |url-status=live }})</ref>}} [[Ibn Sina|Avicenna]], [[Al-Biruni]],{{sfnp|Alikuzai|2013|p=154}}{{sfnp|Rozhanskaya|Levinova|1996}} [[Roger Bacon]]{{efn-lg|His assertions in the ''{{lang|la|Opus Majus}}'' that "theories supplied by reason should be verified by sensory data, aided by instruments, and corroborated by trustworthy witnesses"<ref>Bacon, ''Opus Majus'', Bk.&VI.</ref> were (and still are) considered "one of the first important formulations of the scientific method on record".{{sfnp|Borlik|2011|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=c_ShAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA132 132]}}}}, and [[William of Ockham]]. Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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