PRE-PHILOSOPHIC PERIOD Pre-philosophic people explained and predicted phenomena on the basis of magic, witchcraft or mythology.

Scientific principles as we know today were not yet at hand. What mattered in those days were what the deities, demons or gods said. It was thought that the best way to explain events and to know what will happen in the future was to talk to these beings themselves, either indirectly through some medium or directly through ones own efforts. Everything depended upon the whims of these unseen beings and it was the same with sickness, birth, marriage, death or any other matter. Throughout the Ancient World various methods of gaining audience with these beings were employed. Indirectly, by offerings through some intermediary shamans who communicated with these deities, demons or gods, in many styles. Directly, was either through occasions of epileptic seizures, epilepsy then being known as a Sacred Disease, or by intoxicating oneself with some substancesome came in a form of powerful drugs as in the case of South American Ancient civilizations, those extracted from mescalito mushrooms or cocoa leaves or as in the case of Asia Minor, in the form of wine, beer or liquor. In ancient Greece, feasts were everyone intoxicates oneself were celebrated for the very purpose of gaining first hand audience with these normally unseen beings. These feasts were called orgies. As what we learned from history, dealing with witchcraft, magic and mythology were not much of help. Two reasons why ancient people were predisposed to make such assumptions about unseen beings have to do with their concept of mind. First, before 600 BC, ancient men have thought that whatever they hear in their minds were not their own thought or ideas, but must have come from the voices of the gods. Second, this reason has to do with the concept of survival. Ancient people must have a peaceful mind in order to survive. Attributing events, which they could not explain and predict, to the deities, demons or gods therefore gave them peace of mind. Philosophy has come to us as an alternative to magic, witchcraft, or mythology. In this connection, ancient Greek philosophers revolutionized their civilization by proposing a method of explaining and predicting phenomena radically different from their predecessors. First, they have assumed that it was possible to explain and predict phenomena independent of any account relating to deities, demons or gods. Second, this implies that human persons could be in control of their lives, or masters of their own destinies. Proof of this may have been what they have witness in lands far away from Greece, namely the riverside areas in Mesopotamia, and Egypt; in these areas people matter-of-factly predicted the coming and going of tides or the arrival of eclipses on the basis of what would later be called mathematics, an activity that depended mainly on an individuals natural capabilities and patience. Philosophy flourished in Greece instead of China, Egypt and India for two reasons. First, it was because of democracy. Greek societies enjoy greater freedom. Greeks were relatively free from restrictions. In effect, they could ask questions even to the extent of questioning the beliefs, policies and practices of those who hold the status quo. This atmosphere of liberty is radically different from China, India and Egypt who were under autocratic rulers. Second, their place was an excellent mixture of ideas, culture and traditions. This implies that sooner or later, it must occur to them that there is more than one way of looking at things and solving problems. Thus, they must even wonder whether their own traditional solutions are the right ones.

THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD Observation- All science begins with observation. This at once delimits the scientific domain; something that cannot be observed cannot be investigated by science. It is necessary that an observation must be repeatable, actually or potentially. One-time events on earth are outside science. Correct observation is a most difficult art, acquired only after long experience and many errors. This difficulty of observation lies largely on unsuspected bias. People tent to see what they want tot see. Identification of a problem- one asks a question about the observation. How does so and so came about? What is it that makes such and such happen in this or that fashion? Question asking distinguishes the scientist from the layman; everybody make observation but not everybody shows further curiosity. More significantly, not everyone sees that there may actually be a problem connected with an observation. Thus, scientists take nothing for granted and they asked questions even at the risk of irritating others. In general, science does best with How or What questions. Why questions are more troublesome. Some of them can be rephrase to how or What to attain objectivity. Question like why the universe exists? falls to untestable category. Formulating a Hypothesis- This involves the seemingly unscientific procedure of guessing. One guesses the answer to the question might conceivably be. Of course a given question may have thousands of possible answers but only one right answer. The chances are therefore excellent that a random guess will be wrong. Experimentation- It is the function of every experiment to test the validity of every guess. If experimentation shows that the first guess was wrong, the scientist must formulate a new hypothesis and once more test the validity by performing new experiment. Clearly, the guess and guess testing might go on for years and a right answer might never be found. In this connection, hunches, intuition, and lucky accidents aid science enormously. Interpretation and Analysis of Data- When a hypothesis has been supported by really convincing evidence, best obtained in many different laboratories and by many independent researchers, and when the total accumulated evidence is unquestionably reliable within carefully specified limits, then a Theory may be proposed. Every good theory has explanatory and predictive power. It prophesies certain results. A few theories have proved to be so universally valid and to have such a high degree of probability that they are spoken of as Natural Law. However, most theories actually have rather brief life spans. In this case, old theories do not become incorrect but merely become obsolete (not in used). Precisely, its because a new theory supersedes and replaces another theory on the basis of its greater explanatory and predictive power compared to the old ones.