




































31 

 

AGAINST METHODISM: A SOCIO-HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE OF 

SCIENCE 

Lukman Ademola LAWAL 

 

Abstract 

The received view of science is that of an objective enterprise which possesses the 

rational methods of inquiry which produce knowledge that is based on factual 

experience. Science claims to be the most reliable inquiry into the nature of reality; 

due to the supposed supremacy of the so called “scientific method” over those of 

other intellectual endeavours. However, the idea of “method” in science is itself a 

source of controversy to philosophers of science over the years. Indeed, scientists 

themselves do not bother so much about matters of methodology and as such, there 

is no unanimous agreement amongst scientists of the specific method which 

determines the techniques and procedures guiding their inquiry into nature. This 

notwithstanding, there have been several formulations of the scientific method as 

evident in the works of some scientists and philosophers of science alike over the 

years. The method of induction which was first explained by Aristotle was 

elaborated by Francis Bacon and later prepared the groundwork for logical 

empiricism and modern empirical science. Inductivism later became challenged by 

Karl Popper who declared that science only progresses by “conjecture and 

refutation.” This paper argues in line with the socio-historical and pragmatic 

conception of science advanced by the likes of Thomas Khun, Paul Feyerabend, 

Richard Rorty among others that the scientific enterprise is not guided by a definite 

method, but by certain arbitrary activities that are relative to socio-cultural 

backgrounds. The paper further contends that the very idea of science is not to be 

viewed solely from a Western perspective, which gave birth to the appellation 

“Western Science,” rather it should be seen in the light of the systematic attempts 

by every society and culture to understand, explain and predict their natural 

environment.  

Keywords: Science, Empiricism, Socio-historical Method, Inquiry 

 

1. Introduction 

Science has crafted for itself an identity, which is that it serves as the paradigm of 

rationality and as the sole model of truth. It also prides itself as possessing the 

most powerful problem-solving tools of objectivity and rationality. However, one 

fundamental question that bothers philosophers of science is: what exact method, if 

any, is responsible for the tremendous successes recorded by science in the past 

two to three centuries? Peter Medawar (the Nobel prizewinning scientist) 

attempted to respond to the above question when he contends that even scientists 

themselves do not have a unanimous agreement upon a specific scientific method 

that guides all scientists in carrying out their inquiries on natural phenomena. 

Thus, in the words of Medawar, scientists “are not in the habit of thinking about 

matters of methodological policy. Ask a scientist what he conceives the scientific 



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method to be, and he will adopt an expression that is at once solemn and shifty-

eyed: solemn, because he feels he ought to declare an opinion; shifty-eyed, 

because he is wondering how to conceal the fact that he has no opinion to declare” 

(Medawar, 1984: 80).  

Furthermore, and in allusion to the thoughts of Medawar, scientists are of the habit 

of regarding disciplines such as political science, theology, education, and even 

philosophy as pseudo-sciences (false sciences) or as falling in the class of the so 

called “irrelevant disciplines”, but they (scientists) themselves are unable to state 

with precision, “what it means to be scientific.” Moreover, if we do not have a 

clear-cut understanding of the specific methods, principles and techniques that aid 

scientists in going about their everyday inquiries, then we obviously cannot make 

much sense of the very idea of science. However, only a few scientists have shown 

interest in the methodology of science, as such; thereby leaving the 

conceptualization and critical evaluation of the idea of scientific method to 

philosophers of science. This explains Richard Feynman’s claim that: “Philosophy 

of science is about as useful to scientists as ornithology is to birds” (Nola & 

Sankey, 2007: 2). 

In view of the foregoing, the task we set out to achieve in this paper is to attempt a 

succinct clarification of the very idea of “scientific method”, while also delving 

into some of the key issues and concepts involved in any discussion of scientific 

method. This paper would examine contentious debate in the philosophy of science 

about whether there exists or not a method of operation in the sciences. 

 

2. The Very Idea of “Scientific Method” 

As hinted above, science is supposed by its practitioners (particularly of the 

positivist orientation) to be the paradigm of rationality, but the methodology and 

techniques of operation that have aided its success have not bothered scientists 

themselves so much. Alan Chalmers, in the introduction to the third edition of his 

work, What is this thing called science? expresses that: 

Science is highly esteemed. Apparently, it is a widely 

held belief that there is something special about science 

and its methods. The naming of some claims or line of 

reasoning or piece of research “scientific” is done in a 

way that is intended to imply some kind of merit or 

special kind of reliability. But what, if anything, is so 

special about science? What is this “scientific method” 

that allegedly leads to especially meritorious or reliable 

results? (Chalmers, 1999: xix). 

For the purpose of conceptual clarification, Robert Nola and Howard Sankey in 

their co-authored work, The Theories of Scientific Method, trace the origin of the 



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word “method” to Ancient Greek methodos, which according to them “has its roots 

in the idea of being crafty or cunning. Later for the Greeks it came to mean “the 

pursuit of knowledge” or “a way of enquiry” (literally, “way of pursuit”)(Nola & 

Sankey, 2007). In Modern times, the common understanding of the word, 

“method”, is that of a way of carrying out an activity in accordance with a plan or 

set out procedure. According to Isaac Sheffler, “scientific method” “is the way 

techniques are selected in science; that is, the evaluation of alternative courses of 

scientific action” (Sheffler, 1963: 5). This definition already contrasts the term 

“scientific method” with “scientific technique”. This makes it imperative to draw a 

distinction between both terms. Scientific technique is the particular way of 

applying a scientific tool or way of undertaking a scientific course of action. It 

involves how a scientific course of action or research program is being carried out, 

while scientific method refers to the rules of decision that guide the scientist on 

which particular technique to employ.  Put simply, methods are the rules of making 

choices, while techniques are the choices being made. 

One must acknowledge the fact that the distinction between scientific method and 

scientific technique is difficult to spell out. However, there is a more technical 

sense in which the concept of “scientific method” is employed, to refer to the 

general procedures for carrying out research in the sciences. This is the sense in 

which Arthur C. Danto construes the term. For him, scientific method consists in 

“(a) explaining natural processes through identification of the natural causes 

responsible for them and (b) testing any given explanation with regard to 

consequences that must hold if it is true”(Danto, 1972: 448). This conception of 

“scientific method” has received wide acceptance from scientific theorists, 

including Morris Cohen and Ernest Nagel who endorse it as the “most assured 

technique man has yet devised for controlling the flux of things and establishing 

stable beliefs” (Cohen & Nagel, 1934: 49-50). 

There are certain identified procedural stages that are followed in the practice of 

scientific methods. However, scientists are not unanimous about the specific 

number of such stages. This is what Robert Nola and Howard Sankey both 

recognize as the different methodological practices within the sciences, which they 

list out as: “observational practices, material practices in experimentation and 

mathematical practices.” For them, “they are part of the proper use of acquired 

skills and abilities embodied in our knowing how to observe, how to experiment 

and how to calculate” (Robert Nola& Howard Sankey,2007: 13). This shares 

similarity with the three phases of scientific method listed by A. D’Abro, namely; 

the “observational stage”, “the experimental stage” and “the mathematical 

stage”(D’Abro, 1951: 77).  

 

3. Rules of Inference in Scientific Practice 

There are two commonly recognized rules of inference that aid scientists in 

arriving at conclusions or generalizations, namely: the inductive rule of inference 



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and the deductive rule of inference. It was Aristotle who first explained how 

induction works in science in his Organon.  He explains the principle of induction 

as a way of getting knowledge of the universal by making inference from our 

knowledge of particulars. In his NovumOrganum, Francis Bacon also discussed the 

importance of induction in the sciences.  As shall be seen in the following section 

in this paper, Isaac Newton also appeals to the method of induction in his account 

of the rules of scientific method, which are clearly stated in Rule 3 and Rule 4 of 

his Principia, Book III. However, David Hume came to hold a fierce attack against 

the method of inductive inference in science. The deductive rule of inference, as 

against induction begins from making inferences from a general proposition or 

statement, then narrowing it down to particular propositions. The deductive system 

proceeds from the universal to the particular. The logical deductive rule of 

inference is therefore the method of drawing particular conclusions from general 

principles or laws as being common in the sciences. Both induction and deduction 

are methods of inference being used commonly by scientists in day to day 

scientific activities. In the philosophy of science, the both methods have been put 

under scrutiny as they require justifications as to how reliable they are in leading 

scientists to accurate conclusions or generalizations. 

 

4. Formulations of Scientific Method in the History of Science 

Principles or rules that guide scientific thought and practice can be traced down to 

earlier formulations by the likes of Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton and Duhem. It is 

presumed that the principles or rules of scientific methodology formulated by the 

aforementioned influenced later theorists of scientific method like Karl Popper and 

Imre Lakatos. Rene Descartes proposed an early theory of scientific method in his 

Discourse on Method. He projected the aim of science as being the attainment of 

certain or indubitable truths or knowledge. This is evident in his rules 1 and 2. 

Rule 1 states that: “The aim of our studies should be to direct the mind with a view 

to forming true and sound judgements about whatever comes before it.” Rule 2 

states that:“We should attend only to those objects of which our minds seem 

capable of having certain and indubitable cognition” (See Rene Descartes, 

Discourse on Method).However, certainty has come to be criticized as an aim for 

science, since most scientific theories are specified with a degree of error, thereby 

making certainty too high an objective for scientific theories to meet. In his rule 3, 

Descartes set out to construct a line of demarcation between science and pseudo-

science, by stating that: “Concerning objects proposed for study, we ought to 

investigate what we can clearly and evidently intuit or deduce with certainty, and 

not what other people have thought or what we ourselves conjecture. For 

knowledge (scientia) can be attained in no other way” (See Rene Descartes, 

Discourse on Method).Here he secludes conjectural and untested beliefs from 

science and claims that only that which is certified by our intuitions, testing and 

inferred by valid deductions qualify as scientific knowledge. In his rule 4, 

Descartes endorsed the idea of methodology in scientific practice, by making the 

claim that “we need a method if we are to investigate the truth of things.” He then 



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proceeded to clarify his idea of method in science, expressing that: “by ‘a method’ 

I mean reliable rules which are easy to apply and such that if one follows them 

exactly, one will never take what is false to be true … but will gradually and 

constantly increase one’s knowledge” (See Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method). 

Isaac Newton on his part helped lay down the platform for inductive inference in 

scientific reasoning, as being evident in his rules 3 and 4 of his Principia, Book III, 

“The System of the World”, as follows: Rule 3: Those qualities of bodies that 

cannot be intended and remitted (i.e. qualities that cannot be increased or 

diminished) and that belong to all bodies on which experiments can be made, 

should be taken as qualities of all bodies universally. Rule 4: In experimental 

philosophy, propositions gathered from phenomena by induction should be 

considered either exactly or very nearly true not withstanding any contrary 

hypotheses, until yet other phenomena make such propositions either more exact 

or liable to exception (Newton, 1999). 

In Rule 3, Newton was particularly concerned with how to make generalizations 

from particular instances of experiments being carried out. Put in other words, he 

wanted to be assured of the plausibility of attributing properties assigned to 

particular objects being experimented to other objects elsewhere on earth or in 

other possible worlds. The essence of his Rule 4 is to affirm the status of science as 

an essentially experimental philosophy or enterprise. For him, whatever is not 

“deduced from the phenomena”, or inferred from experimentation should be 

discarded as mere “hypothesis” and as such, unscientific. Emile Duhem is one who 

weighs against Newton’s adoption of the principle of inductive inference, claiming 

that there is bound to be a contradiction in inference from premises to conclusion 

when taking such rules seriously. This he expressed in the following words: “we 

have recognized that it is impossible to construct a theory by a purely inductive 

method. Newton and Ampere failed in this” (Emile Duhem, 1954). 

 

5. Scientific Method According to Logical Positivism 

Logical positivism is a 19th Century movement which proposed a radical view of 

science and philosophy, thereby changing the entire outlook and perceptions of 

those two fields. Logical positivism gave rise to the bifurcation of human 

knowledge into two broad divisions, which include: knowledge or statements 

based on empirical verification or fact and statements that are true in virtue of their 

meanings or terms.  The likes of Alfred Jules Ayer, Moritz Schlick, Carl G. 

Hempel, and others are considered as logical positivists, due to their quest of 

ridding philosophy of its metaphysical or non-scientific impurities. The movement 

of logical positivism or Modern empiricism proposed a criterion of 

meaningfulness, which applies to all intellectual endeavors, including philosophy, 

theology, science and the rest. For the positivists, it is important to seek the 

authenticity or credibility of every idea of claim before accepting such ideas, and 



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this can be done by demanding for the original sense impressions from which the 

ideas were derived.  

The criterion of meaningfulness developed by the logical positivists is often 

considered to be a fall-out of the theoretical hypothesis developed by David Hume 

concerning the two criteria of significance, which involves seeking the impression 

from which every idea is apprehended, and also by distinguishing between the 

relations of ideas and matters of fact. Hume expresses this fundamental criterion of 

significance in the following passage: 

When we run over libraries, persuaded of these 

principles, what havoc must we make? If we take in our 

hand any volume; of divinity or school metaphysics, for 

instance, let us ask, does it contain any abstract 

reasoning concerning quantity or number? No. Does it 

contain any experimental reasoning concerning matter 

of fact and existence? No. Commit it then to the flames 

for it can contain nothing but sophistry and illusion 

(Hume, 1975: 165). 

The demarcation between knowledge that contains abstract reasoning (analytic 

statements) and knowledge that contains fact and existence (synthetic statements) 

in the above passage attributed to Hume gave solid grounds to the principle of 

significance and demarcation developed by the logical positivists, which is 

regarded as the verifiability principle. The verifiability principle or empirical 

verification implies that for any piece of knowledge or discipline to be regarded as 

being meaningful or significant, such knowledge must have to pass the test of 

empirical verification, and as such, must be in principle, verifiable by experience. 

The emphasis on empirical verifiability by the logical positivists implies that any 

discipline that is devoid of meaningful statements which are classified on the basis 

of their analytic and empirical features; are to be regarded as being irrelevant to the 

progress of human knowledge, and should therefore be jettisoned. The verifiability 

principle represents not only a tool of demarcation between science and pseudo-

science, both also method of identifying and solving scientific problems generally 

adopted by the logical positivists. This is more affirmed in Moritz Schlick’s 

contention that: “the meaning of every proposition is finally to be determined by 

the given, and by nothing else” (Ayer, 1959: 88-89). The “given” mentioned by 

Schlick implies propositions testable by empirical evidence.  

 

6. The Critical Rationalism of Karl Popper 

A thorough-going antagonist of the principle of inductivism is Karl Popper, who 

considers every attempt to ground scientific practice on the foothold of inductivism 

a misguided endeavour. KarlPopper is notable for his popular doctrine of 

falsificationism which he prefers as an alternative to inductivism. This, Alan 

Chalmers expresses in the following words: “Karl Popper was the most forceful 



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advocate of an alternative to inductivism which I will refer to as “falsificationism” 

(Chalmers, 1999: 59).  Popper associates his principle of verificationism with his 

vision of a scientific method. Popper illustrates the idea of method in science in the 

following words: 

 A scientist, whether theorist or experimenter, puts 

forward statements, or systems of statements, and tests 

them step by step. In the field of the empirical sciences, 

more particularly, he constructs hypotheses, or systems 

of theories, and tests them against experience by 

observation and experiment. I suggest that it is the task 

of the logic of scientific discovery, or the logic of 

knowledge, to give a logical analysis of this procedure; 

that is, to analyse the method of the empirical sciences. 

But what are these ‘methods of the empirical sciences’? 

And what do we call ‘empirical science’?(Popper, 1959: 

3).  

Closely associated here, as reflected in the above passage, are ‘methods of 

empirical sciences’ and the conception of what ‘empirical science’ is. For Popper, 

the falsifiability principle is the criterion of demarcation of what falls within 

empirical science and what fails to. This principle is also closely identified with his 

idea of ‘logic of discovery’ which is the scientific method. The scientific method 

therefore aids us in understanding what science is. Popper expresses the link 

between his principle of demarcation (falsificationism) and his idea of scientific 

method in the following passage:  

In accordance with my proposal made above, 

epistemology, or the logic of scientific discovery, 

should be identified with the theory of scientific 

method. The theory of method, in so far as it goes 

beyond the purely logical analysis of the relations 

between scientific statements, is concerned with the 

choice of methods – with decisions about the way in 

which scientific statements are to be dealt with. These 

decisions will of course depend in their turn upon the 

aim which we choose from among a number of possible 

aims. The decision here proposed for laying down 

suitable rules for what I call the ‘empirical method’ is 

closely connected with my criterion of demarcation: I 

propose to adopt such rules as will ensure the testability 

of scientific statements; which is to say, their 

falsifiability (Popper, 1959: 27).  

   



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            However, Popper does not conceive of the idea of scientific method in terms of 

rules of discovery, or rules of justification of hypothesis or theory or principles for 

ascertaining the truth of a theory. For him, the aim of science should not be the 

attainment of truth, nor should scientific theories be judged or evaluated on the 

basis of meeting the criterion of truth. Rather, scientific theories can only serve as 

approximations of truth. Alan Chalmers, expressing Popper’s idea of methodology, 

puts it thus: 

Falsificationists freely admit that observation is guided 

by and presupposes theory. They are also happy to 

abandon any claim implying that theories can be 

established as true or probably true in the light of 

observational evidence. Theories are construed as 

speculative and tentative conjectures or guesses freely 

created by the human intellect in an attempt to 

overcome problems encountered by previous theories to 

give an adequate account of some aspects of the world 

or universe. Once proposed, speculative theories are to 

be rigorously and ruthlessly tested by observation and 

experiment. Theories that fail to stand up to 

observational and experimental tests must be eliminated 

and replaced by further speculative conjuctures. Science 

progresses by trial and error, by conjectures and 

refutations. Only the fittest theories survive (Chalmers, 

1999: 60). 

 

It is not appropriate to consider a theory as being true following Popper’s line of 

reasoning, but what we can say about a theory is that it is the best available 

confirmation of observed experience that is available to us and is more reliable 

than the previous theories. What according to Popper, can be considered as method 

in the empirical sciences are succinctly expressed by Jack Aigbodioh as 

“continuous efforts on the part of scientists to refute or falsify existing theories on 

the basis of some possible or conceivable observations” (Aigbodioh, 1997: 25).  

What scientists should be preoccupied with therefore is the activity of fixing truths 

and beliefs and trying to prepare them for acceptance or justification. On the basis 

of these central assumptions, Popper goes on to give two examples of rules of 

scientific method: 

Rule (1): The game of science is, in principle, without end. He who decides 

one day that scientific statements do not call for any further test, and that they can 

be regarded as finally verified, retires from the game. 



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Rule (2): Once a hypothesis has been proposed and tested, and has proved 

its mettle, it may not be allowed to drop out without ‘good reason’. A ‘good 

reason’ may be, for instance: replacement of the hypothesis by another which is 

better testable; or the falsification of one of the consequences of the hypothesis 

(Popper, 1959:  32). 

Underlying these rules of method given by Popper is the falsifiability thesis which 

is the rule of demarcation of science from pseudo-science. Falsificationism simply 

states that a theory which is not falsifiable does not belong to empirical science. 

Therefore, any theory which claims to be compatible with all observable facts is 

not falsifiable and therefore unscientific. Such theories never go wrong as they 

always find ways to accommodate any instances of change. According to 

Chalmers, “Popper drew the moral that genuine scientific theories, by making 

definite predictions, rule out a range of observable states of affairs in a way that he 

considered Freudian and Marxists theory failed to. He arrived at his key idea that 

scientific theories are falsifiable” (Chalmers 1999: 60). 

Imre Lakatos came under the influence of Karl Popper, whose approach to science 

he finds interesting. Lakatos also drew influence from Kuhn’s epic publication, 

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Although Popper and Kuhn proposed rival 

views of science, their views share much in common. Both Popper and Kuhn 

roundly reject positivism and inductivism, basing their accounts of the acceptance 

or rejection of the results of observation and experimentation in science on the 

background of theory or paradigm. Lakatos was careful not to follow the relativist 

dimension of Kuhn’s account of science. Just like Kuhn, he considered scientific 

research or activity as taking place within a framework, which he called “research  

program.”Lakatos’s major task was to modify Popper’s notion of falsificationism 

while examining some of its deficiencies. Popper’s falsificationism does not state 

it clear how to identify faults with scientific theories, that is which particular 

aspect of a theory should be held liable to revision. Popper only suggests that it is 

left to the discretion of the individual scientist to identify where the fault is within 

the theory. For Lakatos, science cannot progress that way, not all parts of a 

scientific theory are equal, rather, what we have are basic principles or laws which 

form the core of a theory and the less fundamental ones which only form the 

peripheral parts of the theory. The basic principles represent the defining feature of 

a science and as such are not to blame for any failure that occurs in the theory. 

What should be held responsible for any apparent failure within the theory are the 

less fundamental components. Alan Chalmers summarizes Lakatos’ conception of 

science in the following articulation: “A science can then be seen as the 

programmatic development of the implications of the fundamental principles. 

Scientists can seek to solve problems by modifying the more peripheral 

assumptions as they see fit. In so far as their efforts are successful, they will be 

contributing to the development of the same research program however different 

their attempts to tinker with the peripheral assumptions might be”(Chalmers 1999), 

p. 131.Over time, the task of scientists is to continually fix the “protective belt”, 



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that is, the sum of the additional hypothesis occupying the periphery in other to 

protect the hard core from falsification. In the words of Lakatos: 

Scientific research programmes may be characterized 

by their ‘hardcore’. The negative heuristic of the 

programme forbids us to direct themodus tollens at this 

'hard core'. Instead, we must use our ingenuityto 

articulate or even invent 'auxiliary hypotheses', which 

form aprotective belt around this core, and we must 

redirect the modus tollensto these. It is this protective 

belt of auxiliary hypotheses which has tobear the brunt 

of tests and get adjusted and re-adjusted, or even 

completely replaced, to defend the thus-hardened core. 

A research programme is successful if all this leads to a 

progressive problem shift; unsuccessful if it leads to a 

degenerating problem shift (Lakatos, 1978: 48). 

 

Lakatos sets out guidelines for work within a research program, in terms of 

negative heuristics and positive heuristics. A heuristic is a set of rules or hints 

which serves as a tool in aiding invention or discovery. Making the essential 

distinction between negative heuristics and positive heuristics, Lakatos writes that:  

The negative heuristic specifies the 'hardcore' of the 

programme which is 'irrefutable by the methodological 

decision of its proponents; the positive heuristic 

consists of a partially articulated set of suggestions or 

hints on how to change, develop the ‘refutable variants’ 

of the research-programme, how to modify, 

sophisticate, the ‘refutable’ protective belt(Lakatos, 

1978: 50). 

The negative heuristics help to specify what scientist are advised not to do, such as 

tampering with the hard core of the program. The positive heuristics of the 

program on the other hand specifies what scientists should do rather than what they 

should not do, guiding on how to protect the hard core by additional hypothesis 

which constitute the protective belt, which is in turn in need of constant 

modifications. What counts as the indicating factor of the merit of a research 

program is the extent to which it leads to novel predictions that are confirmed 

rather than falsified. When a research program leads to confirmed novel 

predictions, while retaining its coherence, it is said to be progressive, while a 

research program is degenerating when it fails to retain its coherence and at the 

same time is unable to yield novel predictions that are confirmed. The switch from 



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degenerating research programs to the progressive ones represents Lakatos’ own 

idea of a scientific revolution.  

 

7. Reviewing Science Socio-historically 

As earlier discussed in this paper, science is widely acclaimed to be the paradigm 

of rationality and as well possessing the scientific method, which is said to be 

responsible for the achievements recorded by science over the past two centuries. 

It has also been brought to fore in this paper that the general procedures for 

carrying out research in the sciences that we may call the scientific method, lacks 

clear-cut procedural stages. How then can a method that lacks defined procedural 

stages be held superior to other methods of inquiry?  

The popular and rational image of science, that of being the paradigm of rationality 

and objective knowledge, and the possession of a powerful method of enquiry 

which is superior to other methods, as well as the Popperian notion of science as a 

system of falsification coupled with Lakatos’ idea of science as a research program 

have all come under attack by Thomas Kuhn and his allies. Kuhn argues that 

neither logic nor observation, or any rational method plays a role in the account of 

theory formation. For him, science is not guided by any definite method but a 

system of arbitrary activities. As against the popular image of science as an 

intellectual engagement in constant pursuit of truth, Kuhn gives an account of 

scientific progress in terms of a shift in paradigms. Thomas Kuhn’s 1962 

publication, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, had a revolutionary 

implication for scientific practice and changed the popular outlook of science as a 

system of falsification and as a paradigm of knowledge. For Kuhn, science should 

not be regarded as the only paradigm of knowledge and model of truth. Kuhn’s 

contention is that the scientific enterprise is not guided by a definable method but 

by a system of continual shifts from one paradigm to another. Kuhn clarifies his 

notion of scientific paradigm by stating that they are “universally recognized 

scientific achievements that, for a time, provide model problems and solutions for 

a community of researchers” (Kuhn, 1970: 10).A scientific paradigm incorporates 

a set of theoretical assumptions or axioms that are agreed upon or accepted at a 

given time by a ‘scientific community.’ For Kuhn, the use of scientific paradigms 

by scientists to solve particular problems that arise in the scientific community is 

‘normal science.’   

According to Kuhn, there comes a time, no matter how successful a scientific 

paradigm is, when it becomes incapable of solving the problems it encounters. The 

consequence of this is that new paradigms are developed to solve and 

accommodate the problems that were ab initio unresolved by the old paradigm. In 

this kind of situation, where there is a problem of choice between the former 

paradigm and the new paradigm, a scientific revolution is said to have taken place. 

This further leads us to Kuhn’s notion of incommensurability, since it is assumed 

that there are no common grounds or “common coordinate systems” on which to 

compare and choose between two paradigms. The choice of a better paradigm, 



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(whether the old or the new) is not facilitated by an objective system or method. 

The notion of incommensurability is that two paradigms can be so different that 

they cannot be compared in any way. The implication of Kuhn’s revolutionary 

philosophy for our discourse is that the idea of objective truth or knowledge should 

be rejected, since for Kuhn, there are no fixed sets of facts about the world that are 

paradigm-neutral. For Kuhn, beliefs, opinions, theories and hypothesis about the 

world are dependent on paradigms and can change when paradigms change. 

Theories are therefore relative to paradigms. This contradicts the notion of the 

universal excellence of scientific enterprise that stands superior to all other systems 

of inquiry.  

Paul Feyerabend, the renowned methodological anarchist, in his 1975 publication, 

Against Method, attacks the very idea of the superiority of science to all other 

forms of inquiry. His fundamental assumption is that there is no such thing as 

scientific method which represents the surest and most reliable system of attaining 

rational certainty and objective knowledge. Feyerabend expresses his distaste for 

the idea of the universal excellence of science and the superiority of its methods of 

inquiry. In articulating Feyerabend’s contempt for Methodism in all forms of 

inquiry, John Preston has it that Feyerabend raised such questions as: “What’s so 

great about knowledge?” “What’s so great about science?” “What’s so great about 

truth?” “How does science differ from witchcraft?” “Does it (science) provide the 

only rational way of cognitively organizing our experience?” “What should we do 

if the pursuit of truth cripples our intellects and stunts our individuality?” In 

response to these questions, Feyerabend held no idea or no person sacred(Preston, 

2002: 183). For Feyerabend, philosophers and scientists alike should free their 

mindsets and open doors to “ideas from the most disparate and apparently far-

flung domains, insisting that this is the only way they can understand how 

knowledge grows.”27(Jimoh, 2013: 183). 

In Feyerabend’s writings, he opines that the history of science does not project a 

unique or unifying rational method of inquiry, but a series of opportunistic, 

chaotic, and inventive attempts made by a particular “community” (whether social 

or intellectual) to cope with immediate problems confronting them. The 

background of his methodological anarchism is that rationality is not only peculiar 

to science. In the introduction to his Against Method, Feyerabend writes that 

“Science is an essentially anarchic enterprise. Theoretical anarchism is more 

humanitarian and more likely to encourage progress than its law-and –order 

alternatives” (Feyerabend, 1975: 9).He then goes further to write that: “This is 

shown both by an examination of historical episodes and by an abstract analysis of 

the relation between idea and action. The only principle that does not inhibit 

progress is: anything goes” (Feyerabend, 1975: 14). The summation of his 

anarchist thesis is that there are no fixed, universal and absolutely binding 

principles that guide in conducting the business of science or other modes of 

inquiry.  



Lawal                                                                   Against Methodism: A Socio-Historical … 

43 

 

The socio-historical account of the nature of science can also be explained from 

the perspective of African traditional cultural practices. This can be regarded as a 

cultural conception of science, which regards science as being predicated upon the 

cultural attempts to explain, understand and interpret the natural phenomena 

surrounding a group of people. The cultural conception of science falls in line with 

what Robert Bishop aptly describes as the activity conception of science, when he 

characterized science “as a mode of human activity by which we have 

progressively gained control over our environment” (Bishop, 2007: 9). Bishop 

further notes that this view is “closely connected with craft traditions, artisans and 

technology, and emphasizes that scientific practices grew out of our ordinary ways 

of coping with the world” (Bishop, 2007).The African conception of science is 

based on the African conceptual scheme which gives an ontological categorization 

of reality which is essentially driven by the three-valued trait in African thought 

system. This three-valued trait which obtains in African thought systems is being 

described by Jonathan Chimakonam as consisting of the “physical, the non-

physical as well as the union of the two” (Chimakonam, 2012: 33). The union of 

the physical and the non-physical dimensions of existence in African thought 

systems represent a comprehensive interpretation of reality, which stands in 

contrast to the two-valued trait conception of reality often attributed to Western 

science. The two-valued trait bifurcate reality into the physical and the spiritual 

while giving utmost preference to the physical over the spiritual or metaphysical 

aspects of reality. This explains why Western scientific knowledge is regarded as 

being essentially based on the facts of existence devoid of metaphysical excesses. 

However, the African cultural perspective of reality gives preference to a fuller 

dimension of reality, while combining the physical, non-physical and the union of 

the two in a unified system of explaining, understanding and interpreting the 

African reality. 

 

8. Conclusion 

This paper began by drawing attention to the popular and rational image of science 

in which science is regarded as the most reliable system of inquiry that yields 

objective knowledge. Science is so regarded because there is believed to be a 

system or method of inquiry that guarantees success or accuracy of experimental 

results in the sciences. This method itself is however, not so much taken by 

scientists with utmost seriousness, as they mostly fail to characterize what should 

constitute the scientific method.  

Part of what we have been able to do in this paper is to help analyze the concept of 

scientific method itself, taking us down through the trajectory from the earlier 

formulations of principles or rules of scientific methodology to the more recent 

ones. As evident in this paper, any worthy discussion of scientific methodology 

should not be deemed complete without an account of the ongoing discourse in the 

philosophy of science about the very existence of a method of inquiry in the 

sciences. However, most scientists would want to reckon that there is a “scientific 



                                                                       Aquino Journal of Philosophy, Vol. 1(1), 2021 

44 

 

method” that aids in carrying out operations in the sciences, but this position is 

currently a controversial one in the philosophy of science.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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