Qualms with the Scientific Method.

I don't mind the Scientific Method, but it is not without its flaws. As Carl Jung had said, 'Scientific Method's purpose is to serve; it errs when it usurps a throne.' The chief qualification that I have in disfavour of the Scientific Method is that it compels us to have one-track minds when we 'abide' by it. The very design of it compels us to test only one variable at a time, restraining us to this accordingly.

Not only, however, is this antithetical to the process of growth and learning, wherein the developing organism is often charged with an entirely new situation where nothing from the past could be applied.

Practically speaking, it is obviously of little use in warfare, (beyond, obviously, war technology) where one has to change multiple variables at one time and then often to settle for one outcome without repeating any experiments or regretting that they could not have gone differently.

In Art, the most skilled artists are those who can multi-task, usually.

A composer may choose to change the key of a song but maintain the time signature, or vice versa. An exceptional musician, however, can change Both at the same time and create an effect even more enticing than a change on one front. When such a break-through occurs, the proficient artist often feels no need to work with the other variables and dwell upon any further possibilities. Because possibilities are endless, the good artist will know when to stop.

Besides: No effect created by the change of only one variable will rival or discredit the effect produced by changing two variables. In simpler terms, this is to say that a transition that has both a key change and a time change will have its own, unique effect. A transition with only a key change but no time change will have a different effect. A transition with a time change but no key change will have a third effect, and one with neither variable altered will have a fourth effect still.

How is one to judge which of these four is the best? That is an investigation requiring a different set of criteria altogether. An artist with enough gumption, however, will know when to be content with his creation and stop toying with it. This is particularly true of the improvisational musician, who, like the army general, has to make his maneuver, get the outcome, and swiftly move on.

dm.A.A.