Aquinas 101 - Does the Scientific Method Have Limitations? A Contemporary Scientist Explains

Does Science Explain Everything?

Lesson 3: Does the Scientific Method Have Limitations? A Contemporary Scientist Explains

Introduction

While the scientific method is extremely beneficial, it has limitations in coming to know reality. The data generated from the scientific method requires interpretation, which falls under what Aquinas calls the philosophy of nature. Measurements and repeatability are at the core of the method, and also constructs the limitations. If a thing cannot be measured, or the experiment cannot be repeated, then it cannot fall under the domain of the scientific method, which means it cannot generate data on love, friendship, or God’s existence. In this lesson you will learn what the scientific method is and some of its limitations.

Supplemental Listening

Supplemental Reading

Selection from Fr. William A. Wallace, O.P.: The Modeling of Nature, pp. 252-254

Selection from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Scientific Method"

About the instructor

Dr. Karin Öberg is Professor of Astronomy at Harvard University. Her research aims to uncover how chemical processes affect the outcome of planet formation, especially the chemical habitability of nascent planets. She obtained her B.Sc. in chemistry from Caltech in 2005 and her Ph.D. in astronomy from Leiden University in 2009. She did postdoctoral work at Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics as a NASA Hubble fellow, joined the Harvard astronomy faculty in 2013, and was promoted to full professor with tenure in 2017. Her research in astrochemistry has been recognized with a Sloan fellowship, a Packard fellowship, the Newton Lacy Pierce Award from the American Astronomical Society, a Simons investigator award, and the Max Planck Society Harnack lecture. She serves on the boards of the Society of Catholic Scientists and the Angelicum. From January through May 2024, she was the McDonald Agape Visiting Scholar at the Dominican House of Studies.

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