Take for example the recent COVID vaccines that have been in development and trial around the world.

Empirical evidence vs theoretical evidenceĪs the name suggests, empirical evidence isn’t the only sort of evidence that can support our beliefs while empirical evidence is great, we can also form sensible beliefs about things through theoretical reasoning. So your a priori reasoning that this drug would reduce the risk of a heart attack by lowering blood pressure was invalidated by a posteriori empirical evidence. When you analyze the dataset, you see that it doesn’t reduce mortality by as much as other drugs that have a similar effect on blood pressure. Now you have empirical evidence that atenolol reduces blood pressure, but what about the risk of a heart attack? It turns out that the drug indeed reduces the blood pressure of people who take it. You give a sugar-pill placebo to some people and atenolol to the others. So you run a large randomized drug trial. You want to obtain empirical evidence for your hypothesis. You use a priori reasoning to create a hypothesis that this drug might reduce the risk of a heart attack because it lowers blood pressure.īut in this scenario you don’t just rely on a priori reasoning. You hear about a new drug called atenolol that slows down the heart and reduces blood pressure. Imagine that you are a doctor and that you are interested in lowering blood pressure as a way to reduce the probability of having a heart attack. Let’s take a look at an empirical evidence example from the healthcare industry. Examples of empirical evidence In science a posteriori reasoning is based on observation and empirical evidence. A priori reasoning, that is, without (or ‘prior’ to) evidence or experience is the sort of reasoning commonly used by logicians, philosophers, and mathematicians. This might be contrasted to philosophical or theoretical reasoning, which can be done without any direct observation of ‘real life’.Įmpirical evidence is related to the philosophical distinction between a priori and a posteriori reasoning. What is empirical evidence? Definition and explanationĮmpirical evidence is the evidence that we directly observe and get from our senses.

What is empirical risk