Apr 19, 2012 -- 9:57PM, Blü wrote:

Scientific method is a subset of reasoned enquiry.  I think of it as reasoning honestly from examinable evidence, but for a more detailed view, where else to start but at the Fountain of All Knowledge?

There they add things like experiment, hypothesis, testing and peer review.

Honesty is a feature of all reasoned enquiry.  It includes fairness, frankness and transparency; maximizing your objectivity; hence disclosing anything that may influence your judgment (like, as in the case of creationists, not subscribing to scientific principles, who's paying you to do the experiment, any benefit you stand to gain that depends on particular results, &c); looking for, fairly describing and discussing points inconvenient to your argument, not least papers by others; and so on.

Still, I would like a template, a guidebook, a series of agreed-upon steps, a set of clearly laid-out principles.

A white paper on it would be nice.

Apr 20, 2012 -- 9:27AM, Blü wrote:

MMarcoe

I guess rule 1 is -

1.  Choose a topic from nature.

That's a good start.

Then ...

4. a. Carefully formulate an hypothesis that explains all known facts, or at the very least, does not contradict any of them. The hypothesis should be testable, and useful - it should explain relationships and allow predictions.

4. b. Devise ways to try to falsify key aspects of the hypothesis, and test it, trying to prove that it is incorrect.