Empirical philosophy: Using your everyday life in theoretical psychology

This chapter introduces the idea of empirical philosophy for theoretical psychologists. Empirical philosophy uses objects and events from the researcher’s everyday life as an occasion to study more general psychological phenomena. It is empirical because it begins with real, experienced situations, and it is philosophical because it uses philosophical and theoretical concepts as aids in understanding. The chapter argues that there is no hard-and-fast distinction between living a life and doing research. Living a life is an interpretative process of inquiry, and what we call research methods are often simply crystallized versions of ordinary human capabilities that we employ every day (e.g., conversing, observing, thinking, writing). The chapter advocates an abductive research logic for theoretical psychology, that begins with a breakdowns in one’s understanding and employs theoretical tools to regain understanding.