Flaws in the Scientific Method and Their Relevance for Energy Research: A Cautionary Tale

Abstract

The Aim of the Paper is to explore how scientific methods, while strong in principle, can have serious flaws in practice. In focusing on circumscribed aspects of an overall system, science is able to bring a greater level of control over what is under its gaze.  Yet imposing order on some aspect of a system increases entropy in other parts of that system. Because of the combination of what is at stake and the secrecy of many of its aspects, this is of particular concern with Energy Research. Using Methods that flow from the interface of the disciplines of Sociology and Philosophy, the paper considers the most pressing problems and suggests ways of addressing them. The Sociological perspective involves observation and analysis of science as it engages and is impacted by society. The philosophical approach is brought into play in the interest of considering science as a social phenomenon. The disciplines converge around a phenomenological approach to examining science, both as a world view and as a social enterprise.  In the process, the article raises implicit ethical questions. Results of the analysis offer a series of challenges and invitations to the scientific community, encouraging scientists to lead the way in reexamining their methods and how they relate to and impact both society and ecology. Typically, the most profoundly affected parts are those most closely connected with the elements under study and manipulation, and yet defined out of the system.  Scientific paradigms would be more viable if a metavariable were incorporated into them—one informed by where the processes in question stand within the scope of history and the trajectory of life. The article also underscores the fact that science itself is a social enterprise and, as such, bears questioning by the society of which it is part. With appreciation and respect for what discoveries science has made thus far, the paper makes the case that it is time to examine the inertia of scientific methods as they have come to be honed by practice over the last several centuries.