REVISITING
THE
SCIENTIFIC METHOD: The Need to Make Science More Inclusive in Scope (2nd
edition), by Vinod Wadhawan
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by the author
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This book is a
follow-up to the previous book by the author (‘The 8-Fold Way of the Scientific
Method’). The previous book introduced the reader to the way science is done:
Strict adherence to objectivity, rationality, and transparency in handling
information about a natural phenomenon we want to understand. The present book
goes a step further and takes a critical look at the Scientific Method to see
what can be done to make science more inclusive in scope; for example by giving
due importance to subjective information also, and not only empirical
information. Together the two books provide a fairly comprehensive account of
the nature of scientific research, and can serve as course material for the
training of an aspiring scientist. The theme of consciousness runs throughout
the book because it is the most important example of a nonphysical phenomenon
or entity. Ways are suggested for dealing with subjective evidence by relaxing
in a carefully guarded manner some of the eight tenets of the present
Scientific Method. Big Data is a rather recent development in the history of
science. Its availability is having far-reaching consequences for the way
science is being done now. The book discusses its promises and pitfalls.
Present-day science, which is mostly reductionistic in approach, is not
adequate enough for dealing with complex systems. Here again, Big Data can be
of big help because pattern formation is an important characteristic of many
complex systems, and Big Data is very good at discerning patterns or correlations.
Discussion of Karl Popper’s falsifiability criterion occupies substantial space
in this book. This is because this criterion is the main reason why the present
Scientific Method labels many questions about Nature as unscientific or
nonscientific, thus limiting the scope of scientific enquiry. In a more
inclusive approach one would also give due importance to the philosophical
rival of falsificationism, namely verificationism. Another way of making
science more inclusive is to use a diluted version of falsificationism,
formulated by Imre Lakatos. There is also a discussion of the work of some
other philosophers of science, notably Nicholas Maxwell and Thomas Kuhn.
Popper’s philosophy for doing science has proved to be very successful, but it
is desirable that the student of science be also aware of other models of how
science can progress.
CONTENTS
Preface vii
1. The Scientific Method 1
1.1 Asking the right question 3
1.2 Objective observation of the world 5
1.3 Coming up with hypotheses for understanding
the data 9
1.4 Reproducible verification of predictions of
hypotheses 16
1.5 A theory for explaining the hypotheses 18
1.6 Use of unambiguous language and logic 22
1.7 Choice of the smallest necessary set of axioms 26
1.8 The falsification requirement 32
2. Complex Systems, Complexity Transitions 35
2.1 Complex systems 35
2.2 Towards a formal definition of a complex
system 38
2.3 Complexity transitions 42
2.4 Emergence
45
2.5 Reductionistic science is inadequate for
dealing with
complex systems 47
3. Big Data and the Future of the Scientific Method 41
4. Life, Intelligence, Reality, Consciousness 65
4.1 Life
65
4.2 Intelligence
72
4.3 The nature of reality 74
4.4 Consciousness
78
4.5 The illusionism theory of consciousness 96
4.6 One
consciousness or many? 102
4.7 Epigenetics and ‘DNA memories’ 104
5. Artificial Life, Intelligence, Consciousness 109
5.1 Artificial life 109
5.2 Artificial intelligence 114
5.3 ChatGPT
115
5.4 Artificial consciousness, or machine
consciousness 122
5.5 Can a robot acquire consciousness? 125
5.6 Have some of our robots already become
conscious? 127
5.7 Analogous correlates of consciousness 133
5.8 Afterlife
136
5.9 Apocalyptic AI and transhumanism 138
5.10 Twenty watts vs. megawatts:
Why
your brain shames every AI 146
6. Towards a More Inclusive Scientific Method 159
6.1 Asking the right question 159
6.2 Observation of the world 160
6.3 Coming up with hypotheses for understanding
the data 163
6.4 Testing of predictions of hypotheses 166
6.5 A theory for explaining the hypotheses 169
6.6 The language and logic of science 169
6.7 Choice of axioms 170
6.8 How justified is the falsifiability
requirement? 172
7. Concluding Remarks and Book Summary 181
Bibliography 201
Index 215
Preface
to the First Edition
Nature is all
there is. All phenomena are natural phenomena, and the Scientific Method is the
method of choice for investigating them. The study of all natural phenomena should come within the purview of science.
But the strictness of the Scientific Method presently used makes it
inapplicable for investigating certain nonphysical phenomena in their entirety,
a good example being that of consciousness. In a general sense, consciousness is a state of awareness of one's thoughts,
feelings, sensations, and surroundings. It is the subjective experience of
perception, cognition, and emotions that is sometimes described as the ‘sense
of self’. Consciousness is a fundamental aspect of human experience and an
essential characteristic of the human mindbody, and of many other life forms.
An important requirement of the Scientific Method is that in any scientific
discourse, every word used must convey the same meaning to all concerned. Words
like ‘consciousness’ create problems on that score. Although the neural
correlates of consciousness help us in taking an empirical view of the
situation, the problem remains that we do not know how physical
processes in the brain give rise to subjective experiences. How to
remedy the situation so that we can have meaningful scientific dialogue on such
natural phenomena also?
In my previous
book (The 8-Fold Way of the Scientific Method) I gave a fairly
comprehensive discussion of what the Scientific Method is all about, and how
science is done by applying it. The achievements of the method have been
spectacular, and we humans can be truly proud that we invented it. But, as
pointed out near the end of that book, there is a need to relax its dictums (in
a carefully guarded way) so that the scope of scientific investigations can
become more inclusive. I suggested some ways there, and discuss the matter more
comprehensively in the present book.
There is a
related issue, namely that of understanding complex systems. The human mindbody
is perhaps the most complex system of them all. The present Scientific Method
is suitable mainly for doing reductionistic science. A characteristic feature
of a complex system is that it must be investigated as a whole, and not by
reducing it into parts and assuming that if we understand the parts, we
understand the whole. For complex systems, the whole is more than the sum of
the parts, in a mutually interactive manner. An extended Scientific Method that
is effective for studying complex systems will automatically become more
inclusive in scope.
Big Data is an inalienable feature of life in modern
times. It is already influencing science and many other activities like
finance, business, advertising, entertainment, government, warfare, etc. There is a viewpoint that Big Data
can make it possible to do science without having to postulate hypotheses/models/theories
beforehand. This may well be too optimistic, but there is no denying the fact
that the availability of Big Data offers new opportunities for making science
progress rapidly, particularly for investigating complex systems. Big Data
Analytics can throw up unexpected correlations in the data, which may provide
new leads for understanding a complex system. There is already a report that an
artificial-intelligence system has been developed that is capable of
formulating physical theories by recognizing patterns in complex data sets.
So, we need an
extended Scientific Method that makes science more inclusive in scope, that
enables science to investigate complex systems by going beyond reductionism,
and that incorporates the use of Big Data as an additional tool for doing
science (data-driven science). In
this book I explore the possibilities and make some suggestions. If insistence
on empirical evidence limits the scope of science, then go for non-empirical
and experiential evidence also. If the falsifiability requirement of the
Scientific Method is too restrictive, then see what can be done to relax it in
a carefully guarded and tentative manner. Big Data is offering wonderful new
and highly unconventional ways of doing science. The training of scientists must now include
awareness of this option, as also an exposure to the basics of how such
research should be done.
Vinod Wadhawan
New Delhi
(January 2025)
Preface to the Second Edition
In this
edition I factor in some of the feedback received on the first edition. There
are several alterations and additions also.
In the
first edition I took a somewhat ambivalent position on the various competing
models and theories of consciousness. I just described the various approaches,
and said by implication that this so-called ‘hard problem’ of philosophy is far
from resolved. In the present edition I try to defend the thesis that Big-C
consciousness is no big deal, and that we may soon be living in a world in
which our consciousness is extended to something far higher and better than the
present level. I take an explicitly materialistic view that consciousness is an
emergent property. We humans are creating so many types of sophisticated
‘artificial’ consciousness in robots. And all these are emergent
entities, having emerged in material systems. It is thrilling that our
Scientific Method for interrogating Nature has brought things to a stage where
we can try to shape the kind of future we want, and the various kinds of
consciousnesses we would be surrounded by.
One of
the important tenets of the Scientific Method is that each word or phrase used
in science should convey the same meaning to all. The most problematic word in
this context is ‘consciousness’. There are so many types of them (beginning
with functional or clinical consciousness onwards) that almost never should
this word be used without a qualifying adjective. This is an important
requirement for making science more inclusive in scope. But even if we do this,
one more problem crops up, this time from a competing theory: In the
Indic approach to knowledge, consciousness is a class apart, something not at
all an emergent entity. Let us call it ‘Fundamental consciousness’. It is regarded as fundamental to everything else:
·
Fundamental consciousness is a transcendent category,
distinct from material matter.
·
The physical universe and fundamental consciousness
are complementary, like two sides of a coin.
·
Fundamental consciousness is like a light which
illuminates the mind. It is not an object. It is the searchlight with which we
see objects in our inner or outer spaces or through the medium of the senses.
It is the perceiving subject.
In the
existing science, we know about only four fundamental forces or interactions
(gravitational, electromagnetic, strong nuclear, and weak nuclear), and there
is no place for anything like fundamental consciousness and the interaction(s)
relevant to it.
In this
edition I bring out the fact that our prominent theories of consciousness, as
also the answers provided to the uncomfortable questions raised by the current
developments in AI-related research, have resulted in the recognition of a
whole spectrum of types and degrees of consciousness. It is conceivable
that the random forces of Nature just happened to lead to the emergence of our
type of neural-network-based consciousness, and that other types of
consciousness are also possible.
I have
added a section on afterlife. There is no afterlife, no rebirth. Subhash Kak
has floated the interesting idea of epigenetic ‘DNA memories’. If confirmed, it
may well explain why some people behave as if they had a previous birth.
Vinod
Wadhawan
New Delhi
(November 2026)
