"Empirical" redirects here. For other uses, see Empirical (disambiguation).
Empirical evidence for a proposition is evidence, i.e. what supports or counters this proposition, that is constituted by or accessible to sense experience or experimental procedure. Empirical evidence is of central importance to the sciences and plays a role in various other fields, like epistemology and law.
There is no general agreement on how the terms evidence and empirical are to be defined. Often different fields work with quite different conceptions. In epistemology, evidence is what justifies beliefs or what determines whether holding a certain belief is rational. This is only possible if the evidence is possessed by the person, which has prompted various epistemologists to conceive evidence as private mental states like experiences or other beliefs. In philosophy of science, on the other hand, evidence is understood as that which confirms or disconfirms scientific hypotheses and arbitrates between competing theories. For this role, it is important that evidence is public and uncontroversial, like observable physical objects or events and unlike private mental states, so that evidence may foster scientific consensus. The term empirical comes from Greek ἐμπειρία empeiría, i.e. 'experience'. In this context, it is usually understood as what is observable, in contrast to unobservable or theoretical objects. It is generally accepted that unaided perception constitutes observation, but it is disputed to what extent objects accessible only to aided perception, like bacteria seen through a microscope or positrons detected in a cloud chamber, should be regarded as observable.
Empirical evidence is essential to a posteriori knowledge or empirical knowledge, knowledge whose justification or falsification depends on experience or experiment. A priori knowledge, on the other hand, is seen either as innate or as justified by rational intuition and therefore as not dependent on empirical evidence. Rationalism fully accepts that there is knowledge a priori, which is either outright rejected by empiricism or accepted only in a restricted way as knowledge of relations between our concepts but not as pertaining to the external world.
Scientific evidence is closely related to empirical evidence but not all forms of empirical evidence meet the standards dictated by scientific methods. Sources of empirical evidence are sometimes divided into observation and experimentation, the difference being that only experimentation involves manipulation or intervention: phenomena are actively created instead of being passively observed.
and 26 Related for: Empirical evidence information
Empiricalevidence for a proposition is evidence, i.e. what supports or counters this proposition, that is constituted by or accessible to sense experience...
The roughly spherical shape of Earth can be empiricallyevidenced by many different types of observation, ranging from ground level, flight, or orbit...
Empirical research is research using empiricalevidence. It is also a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience...
action. The name shares the same stem with empiricalevidence, involving an idea of practical experience. Empiric antimicrobial therapy is directed against...
abandoned her and re-married a white American woman, she commits seppuku. Empiricalevidence for the Pinkerton syndrome was first examined in Singapore. After...
the formal sciences are science disciplines, as they do not rely on empiricalevidence. Applied sciences are disciplines that use scientific knowledge for...
justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience and empiricalevidence. It is one of several competing views within epistemology, along with...
despite being criticized by mainstream psychology for its lack of empiricalevidence, its dependence on subjective judgement and its overall unscientific...
Such evidence is expected to be empiricalevidence and interpretable in accordance with the scientific method. Standards for scientific evidence vary...
should be analysed as Veblen goods. Some economists[who?] question the empirical validity of the distinction between Giffen and Veblen goods, arguing that...
held that there are two kinds of evidence: intellectual evidence or what is self-evident and empiricalevidence or evidence accessible through the senses...
Freud who studied pleasure and whose surname means 'joy'. A few recent empirical studies have indicated that certain professions are disproportionately...
exchange rate and the future spot exchange rate. Economists have found empiricalevidence that covered interest rate parity generally holds, though not with...
mechanisms of community and ecosystem perspectives are different, the empiricalevidence required for documentation of alternative stable states is the same...
Michael G. (1987). "Lifestyle and Routine Activity Theories of Crime: Empirical Studies of Victimization, Delinquency, and Offender Decision-Making"....
occurred". Since the concept was introduced in the early 1990s, a number of empirical studies have sought to establish when and under what circumstances the...
From this perspective, the Shared intentionality approach provides empiricalevidence of the extended mind thesis. Philosophical arguments against the extended...
as some anecdotal evidence can be both empirical and verifiable, e.g. in the use of case studies in medicine. Other anecdotal evidence, however, does not...
psychological concept, existing solely as symbols within people's minds. Empiricalevidence supports the connections between utopian thinking and the three primary...
individual's work decisions, the net impact might thus be unclear. Empiricalevidence shows that increased taxes cause a decrease in work effort, meaning...
are not yet generated, and thus assumes perfect capital markets. Empiricalevidence shows that liquidity constraint is one of the main reasons why it...
new interpretations.[citation needed] New trade theory tries to explain empirical elements of trade that comparative advantage-based models above have difficulty...
city's growth affects others'. The hierarchy is usually related to the empirical regularity with which cities are distributed. The pattern has been formulated...
systematic investigation using the scientific method, to discover empiricalevidence for them. Skepticism, also spelled scepticism (from the Greek σκέπτομαι...
against the neutral theory cite evidence of widespread positive selection and selective sweeps in genomic data. Empirical support for the neutral theory...
theoretical basis for the handicap principle, which remains unconfirmed by empiricalevidence. The handicap principle was proposed in 1975 by the Israeli biologist...
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