ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the general rules, principles, and procedures that are common to all scientific disciplines. In modern times, this system of information has become known as the philosophy or logic of science. The different scientific disciplines—e.g. physics, chemistry, psychology, physiology, anthropology, sociology, etc.—represent the division of labor that scientists have effected. Each discipline has staked out its own area with relatively little overlap among the several areas. Despite this division of labor, all disciplines use the same general method. It is the common aspects of scientific methodology with which this chapter is concerned. A description of the scientific method describes how scientists obtain, formulate, and organize new knowledge. It does not deal specifically with knowledge that has been obtained by the scientific method.
