Limitations of scientific method.

 

The Scientific method encourages the process of experimentation and observation of data for knowledge creation. The process involves systematic approach of questioning, arriving at a hypothesis through background study, deriving empirical data through which the hypothesis can be proven or disproven.

The concept of duality is closely related to science, the observer observes the material world. In my view, the dual nature of the scientific process, where the universe is considered separate from the conscious observer is one of its flaws. The conscious observer can be considered as complex as the universe itself. Consider the concept that the sounds we hear, the images we see are all happening inside of us as much as it is happening in the external environment. Then the observer and the observed becomes one. There could be the possibility that this could be the reality of the universe, where every phenomenon is not separate from the subject and the object and the phenomenon itself. We use the scientific method to observe and experiment the nature of reality, and what if this method itself limits us to understanding the reality of the universe only to a certain degree.

 Scientists are often at the frontier of knowledge, where they are looking at a blank slate, and they can only rely on observations and experimentations and derive conclusions based on it. Often there are cases where the existing laws do not seem to work, and there needs to be an input of imagination or creativity to understand the reality of nature. Let us consider the discovery of sub atomic particles: - In such a scale, classical physics did not seem to apply. The Newtonian physics that was practiced and learnt and applied to understand every phenomenon in the universe for over two hundred years did not make any sense at the sub atomic level. A new set of rules that we now call quantum mechanics needed to be derived to make sense of the universe. So how does a physical object that can be felt by us, be comprised of tiny particles that could exist in wave function. We only derive the probability of these particles existing and exhibiting its properties of mass and momentum in a particular point in space but it has a degree of unpredictability or uncertainty. This nature of quantum mechanics could be also be likened with the nature of social sciences. Every research in human behaviour, relationships and interactions can only help us derive probable answers, there may not be hundred percent certain answers. 

It is important to understand the complexity of consciousness. Without putting some faith in creativity and imagination, science would not make a leap in development. Wouldn't it be hard to understand the universe, only through a systematic deterministic way, if the nature of the universe itself might be chaotic?