Two types of empirical adequacy

a partial structures approach

John M. Dukich

pp. 2801-2820

in: Synthese 190 (14), 2013.

Abstract

The notion of empirical adequacy has received recent philosophical attention, especially within the framework of the semantic approach. Empirical adequacy, as explicated in the semantic approach, concerns the relationship between empirical substructures and some phenomena. The aim here is to differentiate this notion of empirical adequacy from one concerning the relationship between data and phenomena. Distinguishing each notion of empirical adequacy emphasizes different aspects of scientific practice—one concerning theory-development from the basis of an established theory, the other concerning theory-development from the basis of data-fitting, where established theory may not foster further development. To illustrate this contrast, an example from financial economics is considered.