The Scientific Method Is a
General Problem Solving Method for All Domains,
Including Our Personal Lives

Thus it can be called
The Complete Method of
Creative Problem Solving and Decision Making

Quotes Supporting What Is the Scientific Method

From “We Are All Scientists” by T.H. Huxley in Darwiniana (1863), reprinted in A Treasury of Science (1948):

The method for scientific investigation is nothing but the expression of the necessary mode of working of the human mind. It is simply the mode at which all phenomena are reasoned about, rendered precise and exact.

From In the American Province (1985) by David A. Hollinger:

Galileo’s discovery of a “general method, available and adaptable for use by all . . . no matter what the area,” is for Ratner, as for Dewey, the central moment in history. For three centuries this discovery was taken advantage of only by a handful of people, mostly those practicing the physical sciences.

From Scientist as Subject (1976) by Michael J. Mahoney:

1. The Demarcation Problem. What is it that distinguishes science from non-science? This may seem like a disarmingly simple question, but its answer has remained perplexingly elusive. Attempts to set science apart from other approaches to knowledge have been numerous . . . and unanimously unsuccessful.

From Introduction to Logic (1982) by Irving M. Copi:

As the term “scientific” is generally used today, it refers to any reasoning which attempts to proceed from observable facts of experience to reasonable (that is, relevant and testable) explanations for those facts. The scientific method is not confined to professional scientists: anyone can be said to be proceeding scientifically who follows the general pattern of reasoning from evidence to conclusions that can be tested by experience. The skilled detective is a scientist in this sense, as are most of us – in our more rational moments, at least.

From Out of My Later Years (1950) by Albert Einstein:

The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking. It is for this reason that the critical thinking of the physicist cannot possibly be restricted to the examination of the concepts of his own special field.

From The Grammar of Science (1892) by Karl Pearson:

The scientific method of examining facts is not peculiar to one class of phenomena and to one class of workers; it is applicable to social as well as physical problems, and we must guard ourselves against supposing that the scientific frame of mind is a peculiarity of the professional scientist.

From How We Think (1933) by John Dewey:

Scientific method includes, in short, all the processes by which the observing and amassing of data are regulated with a view to facilitating the formation of explanatory conceptions and theories.

From The Human Intellect (1868) by Noah Porter:

It follows that we can nowhere find the dividing line which separates common from scientific knowledge. We cannot say, in the history of any branch of knowledge, “Here common knowledge ceases and science begins.” At this point he who knows as a man, begins to know as a philosopher.

From The Scientific Approach: Basic Principles of the Scientific Method (1967) by Carlo Lastrucci:

To reiterate, however, it should be borne in mind that science is a method; it is not a philosophy (of knowledge, of man, of nature, or of anything else, for that matter). Science as such, then – either as a method or as a body of verified knowledge – does not entail any particular epistemological position; that is, it is not committed to any particular theory or philosophy of knowledge.