There are a few "substitutes"... Or rather strong derivatives devised from hundreds of years of philosophy. 1) Advanced mathematical logic. 2) Advanced statist

There are a few "substitutes"... Or rather strong derivatives devised from hundreds of years of philosophy. 1) Advanced mathematical logic. 2) Advanced statistics. 3) Advanced control theory or systems. 4) Experiment design. All of these usually post-graduate and they feed one into another... You need pretty strong algebra and mathematic proof reading skills too.