Methods and Technical Research Tools

What is the relationship between methods and technical research tools?

Knowledge concerning technical tools takes the forms of accepted beliefs of the kind "telescopes are useful tools for examining distant celestial bodies" or "polling is a useful technique for assessing public opinion". This in turn leads to the employment of respective methods, such as "data on distant celestial bodies is acceptable if it is obtained by a telescope" or "x represents public opinion on a certain topic if the results are obtained through polling". This in turn leads to the usage of the respective techniques in practice. However, is it at all possible for a research technique to be used independently of any method?

In the scientonomic context, this question was first formulated by Paul Patton in 2016. The question is currently accepted as a legitimate topic for discussion by Scientonomy community. At the moment, the question has no accepted answer in Scientonomy.

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Community	Accepted From	Acceptance Indicators	Still Accepted	Accepted Until	Rejection Indicators
Scientonomy	1 April 2016	It was acknowledged as an open question by the Scientonomy Seminar 2016.	Yes

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Related Topics

This question is a subquestion of Status of Technological Knowledge.