Why it's so hard to convince a climate denier

[Bill USA]

27. never said there was no intuition involved in conduct of scientific discovery. Without that you'd

be talking about computers, not humans. The conduct of science is a creative process - formulating hypotheses - as well as observational.

... hypothesis building is the proposing of an explanation for observed events. Without the observed events there would be no reason for a hypothesis, or explanation. But without verification of hypotheses with verifiable observations of events - to test the hypothesis we would never develop theories and theories would never become laws.


my cmt 20:

when you are talking about scientists, engaged in the use of the scientific method, [font size="+1"]while it is true when formulating an hypothesis some considerable imagination is involved in coming up with a postulated phenomenon or relationship and proposing a way to test the hypothesis offered[/font]. But scientists are entirely dedicated to empirical validation of proposed theories. From the scientific viewpoint, if you do not have highly disciplined or controlled methods of observing and consistent measuring of the processes or events observed - you cannot have scientific progress.

Scientists have to have some imagination or intuitions, but if that was ALL they worked from they'd be forever starting knowledge anew, from 'scratch'. An 'abstract' model you refer to has to be made up of constituent things. Those are observed phenomena some called objects, others called events or processes. Every scientists except the first few had learned a previously established set of these from those observers and theoreticians who preceded them. As society developed this learning more and more took place in institutions of learning, such as universities (e.g. Harvard). The accepted knowledge of the day was what made up these universities curricula.

Here is a definition of the scientific method found in Wikipedia:
(all emphases my own)

The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge.[2] [font size="+1"]To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry is commonly based on empirical or measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.[/font][3] The Oxford English Dictionary defines the scientific method as[font size="+1"] "a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses."[/font][4]