What is an empirical piece of work and how can it be justified?
A dictionary definition of a work of empirical nature refers to work based on what¡¦s experienced or seen rather than on theory. Empirical theory needs to be backed up by solid evidence and data. ... Empiricism has a long history of political thinkers and is seen to be based on the work of John Locke and David Hume among others.
An empirical piece of work differs from philosophical work as its question¡¦s can be answered by observation or experiment. ... Empirical work differs from philosophy as it does not deal with speculation; it is concerned with creating ideas generated from observed facts. ... Empirical work is seen as influencing a number of Political, Sociological and International Relations theories, such as Institutional Studies, Behavioural Analysis, Rational Choice Theory, Feminism and Discourse Analysis. ... In the narrow sense empirical work is concerned with establishing relationships, in its strictest form it sees all theory should be capable of empirical falsification and in the broader sense it¡¦s about providing an understanding of reality . ... In empirical work only first hand observation of data is used though re-examination of data collected by others is accepted empirical research. So in an empirical piece of work only data collected by the author or existing data analysed by the author is viable. ... ¡¨
In international relations theory Empirical work has been the foundation for a large portion of writers and theorists. A definition of Empirical work from an international relations theory perspective is best described by Chris Brown in his book, International Relations Theory: New Normative Approaches . Though a book primarily concerned with describing the normative approach to International Theory he gives a good definition of empirical theory in order to show its contrast to normative thinking. Brown sees empirical theory as having a descriptive, explanatory and predictive nature and being positivist in aspiration. Empirical work, according to Brown, attempts to provide an accurate account of how the world works. He says Empirical work attempts to create sets of interconnected law like statements about international relations and the creation of frameworks within which such statements can be situated. So Brown sees an empirical piece of work as something that takes observations, backed by evidence and data, and creates theories which provide a scientific nature for international relations.
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