Empiricism

Quick meaning: Empiricism is a noun meaning A pursuit of knowledge purely through experience, especially by means of observation and sometimes by experimentation.

Meaning

A pursuit of knowledge purely through experience, especially by means of observation and sometimes by experimentation.

More Meanings

1. (philosophy) A doctrine which holds that the only or, at least, the most reliable source of human knowledge is experience, especially perception by means of the physical senses. (Often contrasted with rationalism.)
2. (social sciences, political science, sociology) Research methodology shaped from empirical philosophy (see above), e.g. surveys, statistics, etc.
3. (medicine, now chiefly historical) Medicine as practised by an empiric, founded on mere (personal or anecdotal) experience, without the aid of science or a knowledge of principles.

Example Sentences

Near-synonyms: folk medicine; quackery; charlatanry

He agrees with Kant that Hume's empiricism is refuted de facto by the example of mathematics, whose judgments are synthetic a priori.

Our whole life in some of its highest and most important aspects is simply empiricism. Empiricism is only another word for experience.

Painting needs no explanation or apology. This most religious of art forms belies the pathetic empiricisms of contemporary discussions.

Word Forms

• empiricisms

Synonyms for empiricism

Depending on context, synonyms include quackery, charlatanry, sensationalism.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include sensationalism, nativism, pragmatism, inductivism, observation, observationalism.

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