Scientific Thinking: Meaning, Characteristics, and Methods | WowEssay

10 min readFeb 15, 2022

Even though the concept of thinking is multifaceted and includes many features, ways of thinking can always be conditionally divided into empirical and scientific.

The practical way of thinking, which is considered ordinary, every day, assumes that a person perceives the world subjectively, just constantly interacting with it. The scientific way, on the other hand, is different. Let us examine what, what it is, and what thinking is considered scientific in this written article with wow essay writers.

The essence of scientific thinking and its place in our lives

The formation of scientific thinking as the primary method of cognition began relatively recently, but its basis and basic laws lay down even ancient Greek thinkers. And even though now the concept of “scientific thinking” is more familiar to scientists, researchers and academics, it is closely related to the empirical thinking of man and some aspects of it each of us knows and applies in life.

But still, to establish the difference between ordinary and scientific thinking, we should outline two central concepts:

Thinking is the cognitive and exploratory activity of man, seeking to objectively reflect in his mind the essence of objects, objects, and phenomena of reality around him.
Science consists of collecting, developing, and systematizing data about the world, aiming to explain events and phenomena of the world around us based on scientific laws.

From this, we can conclude: while in empirical thinking, man operates with his subjective experience and uses the simplest forms of analysis, in scientific thinking, he applies methods of objectivity, consistency, and evidence.

However, as science developed, a man concluded that the difference between the two considered modes of thinking is not so definite as it may seem at first sight. They are both built on a single mechanism: abstraction.

It means that a person, cognizing the world, applies his ability to “disconnect” from the concrete characteristics of objects and phenomena to see the essential. An example of this is comparing objects and phenomena, people and objects, and sorting them.

To illustrate this, it is enough to recall how we divide our surroundings into people close to us and those with whom we do not wish to communicate, divide colleagues into subordinates and superiors, determine food as tasty or unpalatable, etc. All this is required to understand better how to act in certain situations based on our goals and objectives.

But, one way or another, we can still identify two categories of people:

People who are oriented toward a style of scientific thinking. As a rule, they are very active, psychologically flexible, independent, willing to accept new things, and ready for change. They prefer to argue and discuss, striving to assess the world objectively.
People-oriented to a style of unscientific thinking. Such people are attracted to everything interesting, mysterious, and of practical use. They are driven by feeling in life, leaving the substance of things, evidence, and verification of results in the background.

We do not presume to judge which thinking style is best, for everyone can hold their views on the matter. But we can still point out that scientific thinking (even if it is only used occasionally) has several tangible advantages. First, it contributes to acquiring basic knowledge about many objects and phenomena of the world around us and thus serves as insurance against ignorance, stupidity, and illiteracy.

Second, this thinking perfectly develops accurate, mathematical, creative, and abstract thinking.

Thirdly, scientific thinking forms a curious mind and motivates a person to solve many educational, professional, business, and personal problems. In addition, it lays the foundation for teamwork and thus creates the value of mutual understanding and mutual support. The importance of science in human life and society is very well explained in this video.

Peculiarities of scientific thinking

Science is a sphere of human activity in which knowledge about surrounding reality is developed and theoretically systematized. It simultaneously represents both activities on getting new knowledge and its result, i.e., the totality of that knowledge, which is the basis of the scientific picture of the world.

And, of course, the thinking of people drawn to science differs from “ordinary people. Here are the features of scientific thinking we can distinguish:

Objectivity. If we take any other way of thinking and cognition, we see a symbiosis of objective and subjective perception. In scientific thinking, personal and objective are distinguished. For example, when we look at a painting of an artist, we will always see the imprint of his subjective view, but when we study the laws of Newton, no information about the scientist’s personality.
Systematicity. The theoretical foundations on which any scientific knowledge rests create a specific system. This system can be built up by dozens or even hundreds of years and includes descriptions and explanations of phenomena and facts, subsequently defining terms and concepts.
Reasonableness. The body of scientific knowledge includes many theories, hypotheses, and assumptions. Some of them are proven, and some are not. But in any case, each of them has the goal of being reasonably proven or disproven in the future.
Future-oriented. Science and scientific thinking involve the study of phenomena, objects, and objects relevant to the current period and those that will be important in the future. Science seeks to anticipate the development, modification, and transformation of what it is studying into something useful to humanity in the future. One of the fundamental tasks of science is to determine the laws and regularities of the development of objects and phenomena. Scientific thinking allows you to construct the future from the individual elements of the present.
Conceptuality. In the scientific way of thinking, all laws, terms, and theories are fixed in a concrete language — with the help of symbols, formulas, and other signs. Thus this language is formed during all times as long as there is science and is in a state of constant development, addition, and improvement.
Awareness. All scientific methods applied in the work of scientists and researchers, studying the phenomena, objects, and connections between them, are exceptionally accurately realized by people and are under their constant control.
Experimental approach. Like empirical methods of cognition, scientific cognition involves experimentation, particularly when any concepts and theories are formed. But only the scientific way of thinking contributes to a good body of results to draw reliable conclusions.
The construction of theories. Using the practical way of obtaining information, scientists make theories out of data.

In addition to the listed features of scientific thinking, we can point out a few more:

logical consistency — scientific knowledge and its elements should not contradict each other;
confirmability and reproducibility — all valid scientific knowledge must, if necessary, be confirmed by experience again;
Simplicity — the broadest possible range of phenomena should be explained with relatively few bases and without the use of arbitrary assumptions;
continuity — of the many new ideas competing with each other, preference should be given to the one that is “less aggressive” concerning previous knowledge;
availability of methodology — scientific knowledge should assume the use of unique methods and techniques, and they should be justified;
Accuracy and formalization — knowledge obtained through scientific thinking must be exact and fixed in clear laws, principles, and concepts.

If we summarize all of the above, we can conclude that scientific thinking can perform cognitive, practical-activational, cultural and cultural, and worldview functions, as well as the part of the social, because it contributes to the study of human life and activities and often determines the ways and means of the practical application of the knowledge and skills available to us.

It is also appropriate to say that any scientific knowledge (knowledge obtained through scientific thinking) has empirical and theoretical levels.

The empirical level of knowledge

Empirical knowledge is the knowledge that has been proven to be accurate, knowledge-based on irrefutable facts. Things that exist in isolation cannot be called facts.

Speaking of scientific thinking, we can say that science never operates with “pure” facts. All knowledge obtained empirically requires an interpretation based on specific assumptions. In this respect, facts will only make sense within the framework of particular theories. An empirical law is a law whose validity is established solely from experimental data but not theoretical considerations.

The theoretical level of knowledge

Theoretical knowledge can take one of four primary forms:

Theory. It is defined either as a system of central ideas concerning some area of knowledge or as a form of scientific knowledge through which a holistic view of the regularities and interrelationships of the world around us can be obtained.
Hypothesis. It can be interpreted either as a form of scientific knowledge or as a presumptive judgment about the causal relations of phenomena of the world around us.
Problem. It always serves as a contradictory situation in which contradictions arise in explaining some phenomena. The problem requires an objective theory for its solution.
Law. Law is a well-established, recurring, and meaningful relation between some phenomena of the surrounding world. Laws can be general (for large groups of phenomena), universal, and private (for individual phenomena).

These forms of scientific thinking are designed to stimulate scientific inquiry and help justify the results they produce. They also clearly show the complexity of the nature of the type of thought presented.

Principles and methods of scientific thinking

One of the basic principles of scientific thinking is the use of experimentation. It is similar to empirical review, but the difference is that the scientific approach extends the results of experiments to a broader range of phenomena, and the researcher has the opportunity to draw more diverse conclusions.

It is done through the construction of theories. In other words, one of the features of the scientific approach is that we can analyze and generalize the data we get from experiments.

Another principle of scientific thinking is that the researcher must always strive for detachment and objectivity. Whereas empirical review always involves direct human participation in the experiment and the subsequent evaluation of what happens, scientific thinking allows us to observe outside. Thanks to this, we no longer run the risk of accidentally or intentionally distorting the experiment results.

And, according to another important principle of scientific thinking, the researcher must systematize data to build theories. Not so long ago (before the 19th century), an empirical approach was most often used when phenomena were considered in isolation from each other, and the relationships between them were hardly studied. But now, the theoretical synthesis of knowledge and its systematization is much more critical.

As for obtaining knowledge itself, the scientific way of thinking requires unique methods — ways to achieve a specific goal or solve a particular problem. Methods of scientific thought (cognition) and the levels of scientific knowledge are divided into empirical, theoretical, and universal.

Empirical methods can include:

Observation — purposeful and meaningful perception of what is happening due to the task. The primary condition here is objectivity, which makes it possible to repeat the word or use another research method, such as an experiment.
Experiment — purposeful participation of a researcher in the process of studying an object or phenomenon, which implies active influence on it (object or phenomenon) by any means.
Measurement is a complex of actions aimed at determining the ratio of the measured value to another value. In this case, the researcher takes the latter as the unit stored in the means of measurement.
Classification — the distribution of phenomena and objects into species, classes, departments, or classes based on their common characteristics.

Theoretical methods are divided into the following:

Formalization — a method in which scientific knowledge is expressed through signs of artificially created language.
Mathematization — a method in which mathematical advances and techniques are introduced into the field of knowledge or sphere of human activity under study.

It is important to remember that theoretical methods are designed to work with historic, abstract, and concrete knowledge and concepts:

historical is called that which has developed over time;
abstract refers to the undeveloped state of an object or phenomenon in which its established features and properties cannot yet be observed;
Concrete refers to the state of an object or phenomenon in its organic integrity, when all the diversity of its properties, relations, and sides are manifested.

There are slightly more universal methods:

Analysis — accurate or mental dissection of a phenomenon or object into separate elements.
Synthesis — real or mental connection of individual elements of the phenomenon or object into a single system.
Deduction — isolation from the general to the particular, from the general to the specific.
Induction — reasoning that leads from particular provisions and facts to general conclusions.
Application of analogy — a logical method in which the similarity of objects and phenomena on some features to conclude their similarity on other parts.
Abstraction is the mental isolation of essential features and links of the object and their distraction from others, which are unimportant.
Modeling — the study of phenomena and objects through the construction and study of models.
Idealization is the mental construction of concepts of phenomena and objects that do not exist in the real world but have prototypes in them.

These are the primary methods of scientific thinking. Naturally, we have omitted many details and indicated only the basics, but we do not pretend to consider this issue comprehensively. Our task is to introduce you to the basic ideas and concepts, and we think we have coped with this task. So all that remains is to summarize.

Summary

The development of scientific thinking has influenced the formation of a scientific picture of the world — a particular type of knowledge system from different fields, united by a single general scientific doctrine. It combines biological, chemical, physical, and mathematical laws, giving a world description.

In addition to the scientific picture, people have philosophical, artistic, and religious views of the surrounding reality. But only scientific perception can be called objective, systematic, synthesizing, and analyzing. In addition, the reflection of scientific perception can be found in religion, philosophy, and the products of artistic activity.

Scientific knowledge and scientific thinking have greatly influenced alternative ways of perceiving the world. In today’s world, we can observe that based on the achievements of science, there are changes in church dogmas, social norms, art, and even in everyday life of people.

It can be safely argued that scientific thinking is a method of perception of reality, improving the quality of knowledge itself and contributing to self-improvement. As a result, a person has a set of tangible benefits: he begins to realize and understand the most relevant individual tasks, set more realistic and achievable goals, make the right decisions and overcome difficulties more effectively.

Scientific thinking contributes to improving the life of each individual and society as a whole and understanding the meaning of life and one’s purpose.