Science Methodology: A Vote for the Truth or Verified Falsehood?
A Tribute to
Professor Samuel Alaba Akinwotu.
(on his appointment as a professor of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko Ondo State, Nigeria)
By
Dr Jimoh Ibrahim CFR, PhD
Science aims to uncover the truth, and when investigations are carried out without employing scientific methods, they are regarded by the scientific community as lacking credibility and legitimacy. Consequently, science leads to definitive generalisations and encompasses fundamental elements such as atoms. An atom is an indivisible unit defined through research conducted using clinical methodology. Furthermore, science can assert that an atom in Washington, D.C., is identical to one in Igbotako, Nigeria. We can conclude that all swans are black after examining over ten thousand black swans in experiments studies! The scientific methodology is rooted in logical positivism, affirming the belief that objectively establishing facts through observation and experimentation—seeing, forming a hypothesis, making a prediction, conducting an experiment, and finally analysing the results—is essential to eliminating the ambiguity or complexities of language. It advocates the use of logic to substantiate philosophical concepts. This scientific experimental approach is historically situated in the 1920s Vienna Circle, where figures such as Rudolf Carnap, Herbert Feigl, Philipp Frank, and Friedrich Waismann played prominent roles in asserting that nothing can be considered valid unless scientifically proven.
Truth cannot be established except through clinical trials of observation and experimentation. The intriguing aspect of the whole assertion is ‘stealing’ the word ‘science’ by those who studied social science courses and adding it to the word ‘social’ to look like they are studying science or affirming quasi-science to make their investigation credible and acceptable! Here is where professors Wole Soyinka and Alaba Akinwotu failed to answer how they came about their investigation, which is non-scientific, and they want us to believe it is valid. Could such a non-scientific investigation be a falsehood, or is science itself a confusion of methodology?
The scientific approach of “logical positivism” is a philosophical movement inspired by empiricism and verificationism. In science, claims based on metaphysical and idealistic perspectives are rejected, leaving no room for investigation or conclusions drawn from Ifa, Obatala, Ayelala, or Sango. Whatever methodology is applied is entirely false; it is not scientific, for science rejects metaphysical and idealistic claims and asserts that knowledge can only be derived from scientifically confirmed statements. I do not know if Professor Akinkuotu has come to the reality (and I don’t intend to hold brief for him) that the Ayelala mode of methodology has no place in empirical verification or that contemporary disbelief in Ayelala showcases a metaphysical failure or misconception carried too far by the theorist of metaphysical.
Science relies heavily on empiricism and verificationism, which are central to the bedrock of scientific methodology. Moreover, we only argue from facts to theories if refutation or falsification is used. There is an asymmetry between verification and falsification. The demarcation criterion is based on “potential falsifiability.” For a theory to be scientific, it needs at least one potential falsifiability—at least one empirical observation statement that conflicts with it! Is science a falsehood, then!! Science looks like conjectures and refutations of the process of error elimination of getting closer to the truth. What we call ‘ad-hoc auxiliary assumption’ latter ‘conventionalist stratagems’ and finally, “immunising stratagems. Some scientific statements conflict with science’s methodology of finding the truth; science says that ‘all swans are black after experimental verification’! But the truth is that I found a brown and white swan in igbotako, Nigeria. Science says no object beyond the weight of a balloon can fly without support, but the truth is that I saw British Airways flying from Lagos to Nigeria without any support! Science has much to learn from social science methodology and should set aside its experimental science due to epistemology’s importance, reflecting an improved understanding of ontological interpretation. In the social sciences, only interpretation exists; nothing speaks for itself. We are confronted with incomplete evidence (error), which provides a powerful motivation to employ analytic techniques that use probability theory, especially those that address drawing inferences from insufficient evidence.
Science loses the true mission of methodology when progress with reliance on assumptions. If everything is fine, why would anyone conduct group trials in clinical methodology by treating one group while neglecting others, leading to strategic misrepresentation? How does science methodology investigate a failing corporation in experimental science? This paper argues that corporations are not laboratories for experiments. What scientific approach can help distil the success of the military on the front lines? Science quickly shifts from experimental science to a quasi-experimental approach, claiming mathematical theories of probability or surveys; however, in the end, everyone needs to hear from those who interacted with the object of scientific investigation, a narrative captured effectively by social science in interviews, which science is now borrowing! Here, we find the work of my professors, Alaba Akinwotu and Wole Soyinka, rooted in the best social science methodology. Congratulations on your appointment as a professor!
Dr. Jimoh Ibrahim is the first-ever graduate to receive a Business doctorate from the University of Cambridge, established in 1209. He also holds a PhD in Modern War Studies from the University of Buckingham. He is the Senator representing Ondo South Senatorial District in Nigeria Senate.
Churchill alumnus first to obtain Doctor of Business degree (DBus)
