Empirical Evidence And Evidence In The Construction Of Knowledge

By definition, empirical means “derived from or guided by experience or experiment” whereas evidence is the “ground for belief” (dictionary.com). Empirical evidence is the evidence to justify or verify the knowledge stated and often refers to the idea of required observation and experiments. Many would agree that empirical evidence is required to a certain extent in the construction of knowledge as it it the key to our knowledge constructed. According to the dictionary, knowledge means that “acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation; general erudition” (dictionary.com) Knowledge is a very complex concept that requires observations and reflection. Natural sciences has a lot in common with the history as

Natural sciences is a “science or knowledge of objects or processes observable in nature, as biology or physics, as distinguished from the abstract or theoretical sciences, as mathematics or philosophy.” (dictionary.com) Natural sciences explores in four broad fields, physic, chemistry, biology and earth sciences. Knowledge in natural science are generally inductive reasoning which are more defined and often derived from multiple research and experiments. To the scientists, evidences should be preferably gathered by many different people, as it play a huge role in the natural sciences. There is the need for scientific knowledge to be justify with evidence and natural science experiments are often the systematic study or detailed research of something related to science. Knowledge in natural sciences are heavily based on our five sense, smell, taste, touch, sight and sound which contributes to the empirical evidence. Therefore, empirical evidence is needed before the scientist can formulate a law and subsequently a theory in the construction of the knowledges (weebly.com). Furthermore, the certainty of scientific knowledge could be based on the empirical evidences that are presented. For example, physics is very different from mathematics as we cannot make our own method and play around with it (physics.stackexchange.com), it requires theories. This

In the context of science history, empirical evidences are often required to predict the behaviour of nature (ancient.eu). Unlike natural sciences, empirical evidence in history is the solid proof available though observation does allows the researches to look into the pattern of the of the artefacts found. Sources allows the historian to interpret the source leftover from the past as empirical evidence and provide valid information. Solid proof are often required in order to provide information such the object left, the place it was found and the ages of the artefact. From there, the historians are able to determine the intention of it and for whom is was made for. This are often required to support the claim and confirm the knowledge made. Empirical evidence allows us to have a better insight of the past and from that we can both understand the past and present. The construction of knowledge in history is influence by the past but written in the context of the present. Empirical evidence in history also include the personal memory that someone contribute which then becomes a shared knowledge in