The Scientific Method Produces General Principles by Which to Understand the World

Just as the first means by which science reduces the danger of error is the continual comparison of ideas and concepts, the second is the formulation of general principles by means of which we can understand cause-and-effect or sequential relationships among events. The function of a general principle or scientific law is twofold; to organize discrete objects and events in systematic order so that we can deal with them more effectively and exercise greater control over them; and to provide a basis upon which we can, with assurance, infer future developments. With the guidance of such general principles and scientific laws we can move into the future with greater confidence.

We must remember that the value of the great number of general principles and laws which science has established lies in their application in experience. We organize complex experiences and from them derive general principles which we can then employ as a check on our later inferences. Again, an illustration of this checking of inferences against principles is the physician treating a patient. If the doctor concludes that the patient who complains of a stomach ache is suffering from a duodenal ulcer, he is not acting solely on the basis of his observations. He is aware of the conditions under which ulcers occur; and he is also able to fit the patient's symptoms into the general pattern which medical science has established. His diagnosis is based both on his own observation of facts and on a general principle against which he judges the facts. By utilizing this principle he reduces the element of danger, and is in a better position to make a prognosis.