The scientific method throughout history

Allegorie op wetenschappen L'Academie des Sciences © Rijksmuseum / Wikimedia Commons - SUMMER SERIES: HOW SCIENCE WORKS - Looking to the past can help us better understand the workings of science today. Jérôme Baudry, Professor at the College of Humanities at EPFL, explains how the procedures for proving and communicating scientific results have changed over time. We often hear people talk about "the scientific method" as the ultimate guarantee of rigor in experimental research, but what exactly does it entail? Is there really a single method that applies to all fields of science? How have different scientific communities agreed upon common definitions of proof and knowledge in order to allow for cumulative learning? Jérôme Baudry, tenure-track assistant professor and head of the Laboratory for the History of Science and Technology , tells us more. As a historian, how do you understand the scientific method? As a historian, the first thing I can say is that, even though it seems like the term "the scientific method" has been around forever, it's actually quite a recent thing. In his 2020 book The Scientific Method: An Evolution of Thinking from Darwin to Dewey , the American historian of science Henry M. Cowles talked about how the expression emerged around the start of the 20^th century. In fact, rather than being coined by scientists, it was a slogan used by people who wanted to champion the authority of science. The term "scientific method" first gained currency in the United States and was used among people working in popular science, education, and scientific management, also known as Taylorism.