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What is "empirical"

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empirical
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
empirical
adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
empirical data (=based on tests or experience, not on ideas)
▪ The theory is supported by empirical data.
empirical evidence (=based on scientific testing or practical experience)
▪ Where is the empirical evidence to back up these claims?
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ NOUN
analysis
▪ Primarily a political tract, it can in no sense be regarded as an empirical analysis of society.
▪ A more reasonable view is that the law of demand is just fine, and the CardKrueger empirical analysis needs repairs.
▪ An initial empirical analysis of national data series isolates and compares the cycles in different sectors.
▪ There are perhaps two basic lines of attack: straight forward empirical analysis, and analysis-by-synthesis.
▪ However, while the theoretical analyses yield precise predictions, these have not always been found in empirical analysis.
▪ It belongs to no particular approach but is a means of linking theory with empirical analysis to the betterment of theory.
approach
▪ Let us look at the empirical approach in a concrete instance.
▪ Britain and the United States, by contrast, are seen as the exemplars of an empirical approach.
▪ Although more oriented toward an empirical approach, the United States has exhibited some elements of the rationalist.
▪ Britain, by contrast, has a distinct orientation toward the empirical approach.
basis
▪ It is hoped that this work can contribute a better empirical basis to discussion about the adequacy of benefit levels.
data
▪ The important thing is that the empirical data and the theorizing are connected, not separate, things.
▪ Some empirical data compare levels of participation across many countries.
▪ Little empirical data is available on the searching behaviour in B, the direct shelf approach.
▪ One should be restrained by empirical data and learn from then.
▪ Explanations of both phenomena remain partial and insufficiently grounded in theory empirical data.
▪ Like Allen, I would urge you to provide a systematic review of the empirical data supporting your proposal.
▪ For classifications involve considerations of reason and policy over and above mere empirical data.
▪ Recommended changes had to be substantiated by explicit statements of rationale, supported by the systematic review of relevant empirical data.
evidence
▪ This is consistent with empirical evidence reported in some studies.
▪ From empirical evidence it seems that species that interact freely with others do so with a great number of other species.
▪ Good classification should have well-defined categories into which empirical evidence can be organized.
▪ It is a myth that is clinically naive and will not stand up in the face of empirical evidence.
▪ There is, furthermore, substantial empirical evidence of variations in local policy outputs.
▪ The available empirical evidence indicates that all three explanations have some validity.
▪ The problems come when empirical evidence is turned into totalizing theory, tendential strategy into achieved fact.
▪ Given the limited experience with actual personal expenditure taxation, empirical evidence is lacking.
fact
▪ It is an empirical fact that the higher the rate of inflation is, the more unpredictable it will be.
▪ For a decade until the late 1930s, people could do no better than to regard the electron as an empirical fact.
▪ Liberals may appreciate that conclusion, but it has little basis in empirical fact.
investigation
▪ Pride of place in this endeavour was given to systematic and properly grounded empirical investigation.
▪ The particular blend of instrumentality and expressiveness for given individuals is a matter for empirical investigation.
▪ The second kind has to do with the conceptual coherence of the theory that the empirical investigation is designed to support.
▪ The empirical investigations of Modigliani and Miller 2 were conducted on examples of oil and electric utility companies.
▪ Patient and painstaking empirical investigation would reveal the optimum measure of reform.
▪ What this means is that there is no way that any hypothesis drawn from Marxist theory can be disproved by empirical investigation.
▪ Hannah was a thing to be explored, dissected through detailed empirical investigation.
▪ However plausible this suggestion, empirical investigation has lent it no support.
observation
▪ They comment on, gloss, and interpret his writings, and spend too little time in empirical observation and investigation.
▪ The choice of ordinate arises from the empirical observation that A2B 1 is required for chaos.
▪ Both of these apparently contradictory statements are obviously true, but only at the level of empirical observation.
▪ Within a short space of time, Labour's traditional approach based on careful empirical observation of issues was overwhelmed.
question
▪ Whether leisure time increases or decreases as wage rates rise is an empirical question.
▪ Some key conceptual and empirical questions that you might consider in assessing the validity of each approach are listed below.
▪ These are not empirical questions to be resolved by the collection of data.
▪ Again, this seems an empirical question, and it is raised again in chapter 7.
▪ The strength and unity of the transnational capitalist class are, therefore, always open to empirical questions.
▪ It is in large part an empirical question, and issues and studies bearing on the topic are considered in chapter 7.
reality
▪ While the former resists the comparison with an empirical reality the latter is epistemologically founded on such a comparison.
▪ Only if this character is recognised will society be understood in terms that are adequate to its empirical reality.
▪ What always seem to redeem Hughes is his attention to empirical realities.
▪ A company that manufactures photocopiers obviously holds to a descriptive core belief consistent with this empirical reality.
▪ The empirical realities to learn from would be cases.
research
▪ The type of detailed empirical research reviewed above suggests that scepticism is to be strongly recommended.
▪ By far the greatest amount of empirical research on democratic attitudes has been done in the United States.
▪ Why does theorizing seem to be so much more prestigious than empirical research?
▪ Articles by well-known political scientists discuss the central concepts and recent empirical research in many important subfields.
▪ They constitute no more than pointers towards an agenda for more detailed, empirical research.
▪ In the 124 articles we found that were related to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, we found 92 that included some empirical research.
▪ In doing so I will be making frequent reference to the empirical research findings of criminologists working mostly in the positivist tradition.
▪ But further empirical research has revealed considerable diversity in the roles of particular political structures.
study
▪ Importantly, this provided him with the working-class raw material for his early empirical studies of language.
▪ However, rigorous empirical studies have challenged such characterizations.
▪ Poor delivery dates and servicing facilities are further factors to which empirical studies have attached major, even primary importance.
▪ Now that you have considered these empirical studies, you should be more capable of undertaking your own study.
▪ A large number of empirical studies have attempted to confirm this link.
▪ There have been two important changes in the recent empirical studies of political participation.
▪ Such empirical studies of the sensitivity of results will no doubt be further developed.
▪ One obvious development is for the empirical studies to incorporate behavioural relationships.
support
▪ Note the lack of direct empirical support and the abstract character of the argument.
▪ Initially this was scoffed at as farfetched conjecture, but gradually it has received grudging respect and empirical support.
▪ There is some empirical support for the proposition that the likelihood of attack decreases with size.
▪ Although these types of theory are mutually incompatible, both regularly obtain empirical support in experiments by different researchers.
▪ The theoretical arguments receive empirical support from private systems elsewhere.
▪ He claims some empirical support for these predictions.
test
▪ It is therefore in many ways an ideal empirical test bed for assessing the validity of Pahl's classification in the 1980s.
▪ A recent empirical test of this hypothesis as applied to surgeons has provided support for it.
▪ These are discovered in the empirical tests and economic interpretation and justification is supplied afterwards.
▪ An empirical test of the relative decline of legislative power is especially difficult.
▪ Therefore, I will perform an empirical test on the relationship in the latter part of the section.
▪ The value of the hypothesis is that it leads to an empirical test.
▪ Therefore, I perform an empirical test on the relationship.
work
▪ How this study may contribute to theoretical and empirical work both on equal opportunities and the study of management and organisations.
▪ It is not the purpose of this chapter to provide a comprehensive survey of the empirical work undertaken upon this topic.
▪ The limited empirical work on the importance of uncertainty as a variable affecting investment decisions yields some support for this argument.
▪ Two pairs of concepts have been elaborated in the light of empirical work conducted in actual curricular settings.
▪ A related fundamental problem for empirical work in the elite theory tradition is the difficulty of demonstrating that a power relationship exists.
▪ However, there seems to have been little empirical work done on such courses.
▪ Philip Hanson's empirical work on international technology transfer laid bare the limitations of borrowing as a survival strategy.
▪ In the absence of such empirical work, it is difficult to say much about it in sociological terms.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ His theory is inconsistent with the empirical evidence.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A hypothesis should have an empirical referent. 3.
▪ Allen also expressed concern about the empirical base for the category.
▪ At the empirical level culture and nature can not be discriminated in this way.
▪ Only if this character is recognised will society be understood in terms that are adequate to its empirical reality.
▪ The theoretical and empirical relationships between the constructed measures will be explored.
▪ Theoretical ideas are connected to the world by a translation into an empirical language more closely attuned to the observable world.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Empirical

Empiric \Em*pir"ic\, Empirical \Em*pir"ic*al\, a.

  1. Pertaining to, or founded upon, experiment or experience; depending upon the observation of phenomena; versed in experiments.

    In philosophical language, the term empirical means simply what belongs to or is the product of experience or observation.
    --Sir W. Hamilton.

    The village carpenter . . . lays out his work by empirical rules learnt in his apprenticeship.
    --H. Spencer.

  2. Depending upon experience or observation alone, without due regard to science and theory; -- said especially of medical practice, remedies, etc.; wanting in science and deep insight; as, empiric skill, remedies.

    Empirical formula. (Chem.) See under Formula.

    Syn: See Transcendental.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
empirical

1560s, originally in medicine, "pertaining to or derived from experience or experiments," from empiric + -al (1). In a general sense of "guided by mere experience" from 1757. Related: Empirically (1640s as "by means of observation and experiment").

Wiktionary
empirical

a. 1 Pertaining to or based on experience. 2 Pertaining to, derived from, or testable by observations made using the physical senses or using instruments which extend the senses. 3 (context philosophy of science English) verifiable by means of scientific experimentation.

Related phrases:
WordNet
empirical

  1. adj. derived from experiment and observation rather than theory; "an empirical basis for an ethical theory"; "empirical laws"; "empirical data"; "an empirical treatment of a disease about which little is known" [syn: empiric] [ant: theoretical]

  2. relying on medical quackery; "empiric treatment" [syn: empiric]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Empirical (disambiguation)

Empirical may refer to:

Epistemic topics
  • Empiricism, a theory of knowledge as coming only or primarily from experience
  • Empirical evidence, a source of knowledge acquired by means of observation or experimentation
  • Empirical research, a way of gaining knowledge by means of direct and indirect observation or experience
  • Empirical relationship, a relationship based solely on observation rather than theory
  • Quasi-empirical method, as close to empiricism as is possible when experience cannot falsify
  • Empirical limits in science, problems with observation, and thus are limits of human ability to inquire and answer questions
Other topics (many are applications of epistemic themes)
  • Empirical distribution function, the cumulative distribution function associated with the empirical measure of the sample
  • Empirical formula, the simplest positive integer ratio of atoms present in a chemical compound
  • Empirical likelihood, an estimation method in statistics
  • Empirical measure, a random measure arising from a particular realization of a (usually finite) sequence of random variables
  • Empirical modelling, computer modelling based on empirical observations rather than on mathematically describable relationships of the system modelled
  • Empirical probability, the ratio of the number of outcomes in which a specified event occurs to the total number of trials
  • Empirical process, a stochastic process that describes the proportion of objects in a system in a given state
  • Empirical process (process control model), the scientific use of quantitative and qualitative data to understand and improve software
  • Empiric therapy, therapy based on clinical educated guesses
  • Empirical (jazz band), a British jazz group, formed in 2007, with four musicians
  • Empirical, a research vessel that was used by Darth Vader in Star Wars
Empirical (jazz band)

Empirical is a British jazz group, formed in 2007 by four young musicians. The group performs compositions and improvisations, with each member being given equal responsibility for the direction of the music.

The members of Empirical are: Nathaniel Facey (alto saxophone), Shaney Forbes (drums), Lewis Wright (vibraphone) and Tom Farmer (bass).

The debut album Empirical (2007) and the 2009 release Out ‘n’ In were toured on the jazz circuit in the UK and abroad. Their most recent album is Elements of Truth (2011).

In 2012, Empirical featured on Jamie Cullum's radio show.

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "empirical".

The broader, ubiquitous problem is one of confusing the metaphysical assumptions of scientific materialism with the empirical knowledge of science.

It is an empirical fact that the listener to music can perceive chords as groups of notes played simultaneously, but can also perceive chords as groups of notes played sequentially.

Women in modest skirts or slightly unflattering pantsuits, like Jesse Simons, the Deconstructionist, who argued that doping the water supply was embracing the nomadic sign system of Albertine, which of course represented not some empirical astrophysical event, but, rather, a symbolic reaction to the crisis of instability caused by American Imperialism.

It was by now taken as read that collecting figures on morbidity, say, or the incidence of crime or insanity, or the facts of nutrition, would comprise the empirical basis both for social policy on the part of government, and for social science in the universities.

Hitherto medicinal herbs have come down to us from early times as possessing only a traditional value, and as exercising merely empirical effects.

In collecting empirical laws from history, therefore, only very rough inductions can be hoped for, and we may have to be content with simple enumeration.

Naturalistic inquiry aims at empirical explanation, conceived of as the development of theories that identify lawful or lawlike regularities and causal connections between variables.

And at this point in history, it is certainly premature to declare that scientific knowledge of organic evolution and brain activity is so complete that nonphysical influences can be absolutely ruled out on purely empirical grounds.

This adds a measure of empirical confidence to other, related predictions regarding rifter behavior.

By an able but carping critic it was alleged that the mere chemical analysis of old-fashioned Herbal Simples makes their medicinal actions no less empirical than before: and that a pedantic knowledge of their constituent parts, invested with fine technical names, gives them no more scientific a position than that which our fathers understood.

There is significant evidence accumulated in many fields of empirical science that dynamic systems do not evolve smoothly and continuously over time, but do so in comparatively sudden leaps and bursts.

And the empirical systems sciences or ecological sciences, even though they claim to be holistic, in fact cover exactly and only one half of the Kosmos.

This cannot be determined by a mere empirical analysis of action systems, because we all already exist in the same physical universe, so physical parameters alone cannot explain the differences.

After all, the Darwinists could always be seen, whether they wished to or not, as simply supplying empirical evidence for a scheme already known and accepted, namely, evolution as God-in-the-making, Eros not simply seeking Spirit but expressing Spirit all along via a series of ever-higher ascents, which Darwin had merely chronicled in a not-very-surprising fashion.

Taking these as real, they try to remove the wrong ascriptions which make the absolute appear as a limited empirical thing.