ABSTRACT
The hypothetico-deductive method is often described, both in the literature and on the web, as the scientific method. In simplified form, the hypothetico-deductive method consists of several steps: a phenomenon is observed, a hypothesis is proposed to explain the phenomenon, implications of the hypothesis are deduced, the implications of the hypothesis are assessed using empirical evidence, and a conclusion to either accept or reject/modify the hypothesis is drawn. Yet the scientific method is best described not as the hypothetico-deductive method but as the method of multiple hypotheses. The hypothetico-deductive method is described and the groundwork laid for introducing the method of multiple hypotheses.
