{"id":34401,"date":"2016-04-21T06:28:34","date_gmt":"2016-04-21T10:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=34401"},"modified":"2016-04-21T06:28:34","modified_gmt":"2016-04-21T10:28:34","slug":"consensus-is-part-of-the-scholarly-method","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2016\/04\/consensus-is-part-of-the-scholarly-method.html","title":{"rendered":"Consensus is Part of the Scholarly Method"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

An article in\u00a0Real Clear Science<\/em><\/a> highlighted that consensus-building is part of the scientific method. Alex Bezerow writes:<\/p>\n

I like to imagine the scientific method as resembling the solar system. The planets, traveling in perfect orbits, represent the pillars of the scientific method: Observations, hypotheses, predictions\/experiments, and continuous refinements.<\/p>\n

What holds all of this together \u2014 the inward tug of gravity in this analogy \u2014 is consensus. We often call it \u201ctheory,\u201d but that\u2019s just a different word for consensus. Every scientific field has a unifying theory: for biology, it is evolution; for chemistry, atomic theory; and for physics, quantum mechanics and general relativity. We could replace the word \u201ctheory\u201d with \u201cconsensus,\u201d and the meaning would essentially be the same.<\/p>\n

Theories can, and do, fall apart. Phlogiston isn\u2019t real. The Earth isn\u2019t at the center of the universe. Maggots don\u2019t spontaneously generate on rotting meat.<\/p>\n

How did such theories collapse?\u00a0\u2026\u00a0Observations no longer made sense. Predictions weren\u2019t coming true. Hypotheses were shown to be wrong. Only a new consensus could pull it all back together again.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how science works. The scientific method produces consensus. But, if enough contradictory evidence arises, the consensus falls apart. Eventually, it crumbles completely and is replaced by a new consensus. (For more on this concept, read Thomas Kuhn\u2019s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

In the meantime, for anybody who is curious about what the current consensus is in any given field, read a review article or meta-analysis. These articles combine the best, most up-to-date information, and they try to paint a picture about where the field is headed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Click through<\/a> to read the original in its entirety. While some details are different in the humanities, the principles and the main point hold true.<\/p>\n

\"scimethodconsensuscopy\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An article in\u00a0Real Clear Science highlighted that consensus-building is part of the scientific method. Alex Bezerow writes: I like to imagine the scientific method as resembling the solar system. The planets, traveling in perfect orbits, represent the pillars of the scientific method: Observations, hypotheses, predictions\/experiments, and continuous refinements. What holds all of this together \u2014 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":34402,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,85],"tags":[2145,2970,10886,12518],"class_list":["post-34401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academia","category-science","tag-consensus","tag-education","tag-science","tag-theory"],"yoast_head":"\nConsensus is Part of the Scholarly Method<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An article in\u00a0Real Clear Science highlighted that consensus-building is part of the scientific method. 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