Can anyone help me understand the role of empiricism and empirical methods in human geography?
empiricism The view that experience, especially of the senses, is the only source of knowledge. Employment of empirical methods, as in science. An empirical conclusion. The practice of medicine that disregards scientific theory and relies solely on practical experience. Critical realism and realist research in human geography: a method or a philosophy in search of a method? Henry Wai-chung Yeung Department of Geography, National University of Singapore, 10 Kent Ridge Crescent, Singapore 119260 Recent philosophical debates in human geography tend to misappropriate critical realism as a method per se. Drawing upon an extensive review of the realist philosophy and method in social science, this article argues that critical realism is a philosophy in search of a method. It first delves into recent debates about critical realism within the wider geographical discourse. It then suggests three useful guidelines in executing realist research in human geography: iterative abstraction, qualified
