[dragonwriter]

> But that doesn't mean that you can ground it in empirical evidence or effectively apply the scientific method of inquiry.

Yes, it does. The scientific method and empirical investigation apply to any phenomena in the material universe, including human behavior.

Such investigation might lead to models with irreducible areas of randomness if there is some.ares of human behavior not controlled by deterministic laws, but our best models in certain areas of the physical sciences also have irreducible randomness, so that's not a distinguishing feature.