... however we have to differentiate between "research" in general and "science" as a specific method of doing research.
Science has 3 roots:
- The hispanic esoteric Ramon Llull made the concept of laws of nature popular again in the late Middle-Ages.
- During the Renaissance, Hermeticism (an occult, magic-based version of Christianity) postulated that man is capable of using and manipulating these laws of nature to further his own goals.
- Newton, Descartes, Mersenne... they pushed for making mathematics the language of nature.
And with these ingredients, the scientific method was developed in 17th/18th century Europe.
E.g. what arabic, medieval scholars did for discovering medicine and mathematics was research, however as the field of acceptable explanations was limited by religion, this research was not (in strict definition) "science" as we use it nowadays.
A slightly different version of science is e.g. Zetetics. Science says that there is a final truth, however we cannot find it. We can only say with a certain probability what that final truth is. Zetetics denies that there is something as a final truth. In Zetetics, research has no end, because nothing is final and everything changes.
(E.g. Flat-Earthers love Zetetics, because it gives them an excuse to denounce scientists as boneheaded, dogmatic fanatics.)
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