Empirical Sciences

Author: Laura McKinney
Date Of Creation: 1 August 2021
Update Date: 1 July 2024
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What is Empirical Research?
Video: What is Empirical Research?

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The empirical sciences are those that verify or justify their hypotheses through specific experience and perception of the world through the senses. Hence its name, from the ancient Greek word empress which means 'experience'. The method par excellence of this type of science is the hypothetico-deductive.

Saying hypothetico-deductive method It supposes that empirical sciences are born from experience and observation of the world, and through those same processes they will verify their postulates, trying to predict or deduce the results obtained, for example, through the experimental reproduction of an observed phenomenon. .

See also: Examples of Scientific Method

Difference between empirical sciences and other sciences

The empirical sciences are distinguished from formal science in their best endeavor to verify the hypothesis through experiential verification, that is, from experience and perception, although this does not necessarily imply experimentation.


In fact, all experimental sciences are necessarily empirical sciences, but not all empirical sciences are experimental: some may use non-experimental verification methods, such as observational I the correlational.

In principle, empirical sciences oppose the formal science in which the latter do not require an empirical verification and justification mechanism, but rather undertake the study of coherent logical systems whose systems of rules are not necessarily comparable with those of the physical-natural world, as is the case of mathematics.

Types of empirical sciences

The empirical sciences are divided into two large branches:

  • Natural Sciences. They undertake the study of the physical world and its laws, of everything that we attribute to "nature." They are also known as hard science due to its necessary accuracy and verifiability.
  • Human or social sciences. Instead, social Sciences or soft deals with the human being, whose principles of action do not respond to universally describable laws and mechanisms, but to trends and classifications of behavior. They offer a much less deterministic idea of ​​reality than the hard sciences.

Examples from empirical science

  1. Physical. Understood as the description of the forces that act in the real world from applied mathematical models, to formulate laws that describe and predict them. It is a natural science.
  2. Chemistry. It is the science in charge of studying the laws that govern matter and the relationships between its particles (atoms and molecules), as well as the mixing and transformation phenomena to which they are susceptible. It is also a natural science.
  3. Biology. The so-called science of life, since it is interested in the origin of living beings and their various processes of development, evolution and reproduction. Is a natural Science, of course.
  4. Physical chemistry. Born from both physics and chemistry, it covers those spaces of experience and experimentation that require a double look around matter and its processes, in order to determine its internal and external processes at the same time. It is logically a natural science.
  5. geology. Science that is dedicated to the study of the processes of the different layers of the surface of our planet, paying attention to its particular geochemical history and geothermal. It is also a natural science.
  6. Medicine. This science is dedicated to the study of health and human life, trying to understand the complex functioning of our body from tools borrowed from other natural sciences, such as chemistry, biology or physics. It is certainly a natural science.
  7. Biochemistry. This branch of science combines the precepts of chemistry and biology to delve into the cellular and microscopic operations of living organisms, studying the way in which atomic elements of their bodies operate in specific processes. It is a natural science.
  8. Astronomy. Science that deals with describing and studying the relationships between space objects, from stars and distant planets to the laws that can be derived from observing the universe outside our planet. It is another natural science.
  9. Oceanography. The study of the oceans, from a biological, chemical and physical perspective, trying to best describe the unique laws with which the marine universe operates. It is also a natural science.
  10. Nanoscience. This is the name given to the study of systems whose scales are practically submolecular, in order to understand the forces that occur between particles of these dimensions and try to manipulate them through nanotechnology.
  11. Anthropology. The study of man, broadly speaking, attending to the social and cultural manifestations of their communities throughout their history and the world. It is a social science, that is, a "soft" science.
  12. Economy. It deals with the study of resources, the creation of wealth and the distribution and consumption of goods and services, in order to satisfy the needs of the human race. It is also a social science.
  13. Sociology. Social science par excellence, dedicates its interest to human societies and the different phenomena of a cultural nature, artistic, religious and economic that take place in them.
  14. Psychology. Science that focuses on the study of the mental processes and perceptions of the human being, taking into account their physical and social context and their different stages of constitution or development. It is also a social science.
  15. History. Science whose object of study is the past of humanity and that addresses it from archives, evidence, stories and any other period support. Although there is debate about it, it is generally accepted to consider it a social science.
  16. Linguistics. Social science that is interested in the various human languages ​​and the forms of verbal communication of man.
  17. Right. Also called legal sciences, they usually include the theory of law and the philosophy of law, as well as the possible approaches to the different systems of legal regulation created by the different States to govern the social, political and economic conduct of their population.
  18. Librarianship. It deals with the study of the internal processes of libraries, the management of their resources and internal systems for organizing books. It should not be confused with library science and it is also a social science.
  19. Criminology. Despite being a trans and multidisciplinary discipline, it is often included in the social sciences. Its object of study is crime and criminals, understood as understandable human aspects from the tools of sociology, psychology and other related social sciences.
  20. Geography. Social science in charge of the description and graphic representation of the surface of our planet, including the seas and oceans and the different territories, reliefs, regions and even societies that constitute it.

It can serve you:


  • Examples of Pure and Applied Sciences
  • Examples of Factual Sciences
  • Examples of Exact Sciences
  • Examples of Formal Sciences


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