7 ms·

One of the problems when people talk about the scientific method is that they treat it as a sort of a process or a formula to apply, but it couldn't be further

One of the problems when people talk about the scientific method is that they treat it as a sort of a process or a formula to apply, but it couldn't be further from the fact. The point is the concept and there are different ways to realize the concept. You are right, it is more precisely about testability rather than experimentation, but the important point is that if your test shows otherwise, you discard the hypothesis. And that is where it differs primarily from traditional knowledge. Mind you, traditional knowledge is nothing to scoff at. It's the culmination of many many thousands of years of human experience, and no cultural group would have survived this long without a strong traditional knowledge. But does this mean this all traditional knowledge is science? That would destroy the whole notion of the scientific method. Are there some ideas in some traditional knowledge that were developed with the scientific method in mind? Most certainly, and we should treat them as scientific as long as we can verify them. But when you group all traditional knowledge as one body and claim everything under it to be scientific, then the scientific method will tell you, it is obviously unscientific.

eesmith 4y ago
> But when you group all traditional knowledge as one body and claim everything under it to be scientific It might be useful to keep the topic on Mātauranga Māori, and not widen it to "all traditional knowledge." As I wrote, I am not qualified to understand the actual debate here. I have tried to read some of the issues, like https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2545-matauranga-maori-and-science https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2545-matauranga-ma... , and the best I can tell is that it's not being treated as "science" but contributes to how to do science, and what the goals of science are. Take modern medical research. It has a long history of being guided by the interests of white males, under a paternalistic system where the researcher had little constraints on "the pursuit of science." Over the last decades this has changed, and medical research is more bound by ethical constraints which aren't "science", but which are ways to decide which science to do, or to avoid. I think MM is supposed to be like that - to let Māori knowledge, culture, and "ways of knowing" influence how science is done. And I think people get hung up by the phrase "ways of knowing", as if there were a way of knowing which wasn't science. While I can't help wonder if that means things like "prioritize the well-being of local Māori tribes" over "get another publication out" or "follow the track towards tenure". But really, don't trust my interpretation.

eesmith 4y ago

> But when you group all traditional knowledge as one body and claim everything under it to be scientific It might be useful to keep the topic on Mātauranga Māori, and not widen it to "all traditional knowledge." As I wrote, I am not qualified to understand the actual debate here. I have tried to read some of the issues, like https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2545-matauranga-maori-and-science https://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/resources/2545-matauranga-ma... , and the best I can tell is that it's not being treated as "science" but contributes to how to do science, and what the goals of science are. Take modern medical research. It has a long history of being guided by the interests of white males, under a paternalistic system where the researcher had little constraints on "the pursuit of science." Over the last decades this has changed, and medical research is more bound by ethical constraints which aren't "science", but which are ways to decide which science to do, or to avoid. I think MM is supposed to be like that - to let Māori knowledge, culture, and "ways of knowing" influence how science is done. And I think people get hung up by the phrase "ways of knowing", as if there were a way of knowing which wasn't science. While I can't help wonder if that means things like "prioritize the well-being of local Māori tribes" over "get another publication out" or "follow the track towards tenure". But really, don't trust my interpretation.