Method
Empirical Inquiry
Classification
- Method family
- empirical
- Domains
- Epistemology
Overview
Empirical inquiry grounds and revises philosophical claims through observation, experience, and evidence about how the world or human cognition actually works.
Purpose. The method checks speculation against experience and investigates the experiential sources and limits of knowledge. This broad method does not imply that every philosophical question is settled by one uniform experiment.
Characteristic operations
- Frame an experience-sensitive claim: Identify what observation or experience could bear on the issue.
- Gather evidence: Attend to perception, reflection, records, or relevant findings.
- Compare claim and evidence: Ask what the evidence supports, underdetermines, or conflicts with.
- Revise and repeat: Modify the claim or inquiry in response to what is observed.
Used by traditions
Applied to questions
References
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Rationalism vs. Empiricism, §1.2
- John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, II.1.2–5
- David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, §§II and IV