Often times, we use words that we often use without necessarily clearly understanding exactly what they refer to. Take, for example, the words science and scientific method. These two words come up a lot in people's verbal expressions these days. We grow up learning math, physics, and chemistry; these are all sciences, and we understand them. However, if you ask the question, what kind of method is scientific method and what kind of theory is scientific theory? Can you tell the difference? It is possible that many people do not have the ability to accurately apply this definition to determine what method is the scientific method.

Before I answer this question, I'd like to say that I have a Ph.D. in computer science, and I've studied abroad for four years, and I've done several years of scientific research, but I can't figure out what the scientific method is at the stage of my research. It may sound ridiculous to you, but my experience illustrates a problem, our lack of scientific literacy, so clarifying the concept of science is a topic worth talking about.

What is a scientific theory?

The definition of a scientific theory is very simple; a theory obtained through the application of the scientific method is a scientific theory. The reader may find this statement to be nonsense; aren't all theories scientific theories? Of course not. We are most familiar with the geocentric theory, that is to say, the sun revolves around the earth. This theory has been practiced by human beings for thousands of years, and it was only after Copernicus's heliocentric theory was widely accepted that it was completely discarded. There are many such examples, and I will only use this one to prove my point that not all theories are scientific theories, and that many of the the theories we believe in may stem from the blind arrogance of mankind, or the blind worship of authority. To understand scientific theories, we first need to understand what the concept of the scientific method is.

What is the scientific method?

Following the principle of objectivity, observations (or data) are used to prove the value of ideas. The scientific method is a standard of value by which ideas and theories are judged. To follow the scientific method, a theory or idea must be tested before it is accepted as correct, and the method of testing is clear: observations (or data) are used to test it. There is also a requirement for data to be obtained in a way that it must be collected through objective and repeatable methods.

Some time ago, I saw an article in my circle of friends about how Lin Biao used big data to fight his war. We all know that Lin Biao was an ever-victorious general, and the Fourth Field under his command was one of the strongest field armies in the People's Liberation Army. When he commanded the war, he had a habit of asking his subordinate units to report various data every day, including casualties of our troops, enemy casualties, the number of captured equipment, how many prisoners of war were captured, etc. He would combine these data to think about how to fight the war. He would think about how to command the battle with these data every day. After reading this article, I thought that Lin Biao's victory in a hundred battles was by no means lucky, but that he consciously applied the scientific method when he commanded the battles. All kinds of data on the battlefield were the basis he used to test his ideas and judgment. The data reported by subordinate units were objective and did not come from one's subjective imagination, and no matter who went to collect them, the result would be the same.

How is scientific research a process?

When a detective solves a case, the usual procedure is to go to the scene of the crime, observe it, collect all kinds of data and information, and then form a certain intuition or guess, and then, finally, continue to search for new evidence to validate their intuition or guess. Scientific research is a similar process, starting with observation and data collection, and then constructing a theory or conjecture based on these data. For example, by observing an apple falling to the ground, Isaac Newton developed a theory that the earth is gravitationally attracted and that any object will fall toward the earth without the intervention of other forces. A theory is a collection of concepts and ideas that are used to organize, describe and explain existing observations. With this theoretical conjecture, a scientist can make the hypothesis that anything with mass will fall through the air except an apple that will fall to the ground, such as an iron ball. He can test this hypothesis experimentally by suspending the iron ball from a string high in the air and then cutting the string; if the experiment results are in favor of the hypothesis, keep the current theory, otherwise reject the current theory and move on to other possibilities. You can see the diagram below to further understand how people use the scientific method to formulate, test, revise and finally endorse a theory