Leland B. Yeager even argues that economists can legitimately extrapolate from their own personal observations to design new theories.
In this sense, Yeager sees armchair theorizing as something more than the "mere sterile juggling of arbitrary assumptions," arguing that even without a traditional scientific method or field work, the practice can still be done in a manner that draws on "a sound empirical basis.
"[3] While armchair scholarship contrasts with the scientific method, which inherently involves the active investigation of nature through data collection, armchair philosophers and theorizers can assist in formulating theories that explain observations; these theories can then be tested with further scientific investigation.
While the methods of an armchair philosopher are different from an empirical scientist, they can complement each other to produce new insights or necessary truths.
A major critic of armchair theorizing was the anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski, whose views are often summarized in the saying "[come] off the verandah", encouraging fieldwork and participant observation.