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Research Methods in Politics.

Can we ‘generalize’ from empirical data?

A 300 word short essay, for MA international politics.



According to a widely accepted view, empirical sciences can be characterized by the fact they use ‘inductive methods’. Empirical science emphasizes the role of experience in human knowledge: that all concepts are derived from the experience to which they are applied, ultimately all knowledge of matters of fact is based on, or derived from experience. Accordingly all knowledge of the world can be justified only by experience. This however undermines the role of reasoning in human knowledge. Empiricism argues that knowledge derived from a priori reasoning either does not exist or is confined to ‘analytical’ truths, which have no content, deriving their validity merely from the meaning of the words used to express them.



According to Popper, ‘a scientist, whether theorist or experimenter, puts forward statements, or systems of statements, and tests them step by step’, but ‘in the field of empirical sciences, more particularly, he constructs hypotheses, or systems of theories, and tests them against experience by observation and experiment. According to this method, the logic of scientific discovery would be identical with inductive logic. An inference can be referred to as ‘inductive’ if it passes from singular statements to universal statements. Popper sighted induction as a problem in the empirical sciences, he argues that, ‘from a logical point of view, we are justified in inferring universal statements from singular ones no matter how numerous; for any conclusion done in this way may always turn out to be false: he gives a simple illustration by saying that, ‘no matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white.


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