Epilogue

Abstract

For today’s young researcher, carrying out an experiment according to a carefully established protocol, gathering results, discussing these results and writing a report of these results with a view to publication; all of these activities take place within the framework of a standard routine. As a consequence, a researcher does not really pause to enquire when wise men and women began to adopt the intellectual and manual gymnastics that have been called the experimental method or who was at the origin of this innovation. Today’s scientific researcher would perhaps be surprised to learn that the scientific method that he or she practices daily was invented only four centuries ago, and that it blossomed in an atmosphere of curiosity, revolt and creativity. In the life sciences, the start of the scientific method in the 17^th century was signalled by Harvey ’s demonstration that the blood flowing to all organs makes a complete circuit of the body, during which it leaves the heart and returns to it. During the same period, experimental science as applied to the physical world was also undergoing unprecedented growth. This sudden explosion in the process by which knowledge is acquired was a fruit that was long in ripening, with a tortuous history going all the way back to Ancient Greece, where a logical system of reasoning was created for the first time. It was in Ancient Greece, where there was a succession of philosophers who were skilled in the art of dialectics, and a political context that was open to debate, that the idea that the imaginary should not be disconnected from the rational, and that certitudes which are based on tradition can be revised, took shape.