Empiricism

Empiricism is the school of Epistemology (in philosophy or psychology) that virtually all knowledge is the result of our experiences. (See John Locke's Tabula rasa or "blank slate" theory.) Radical Empiricism holds that our knowledge is essentially nothing more than the sum of our experiences. Empiricism is closely allied with (philosophical) materialism and positivism and opposed to intuitionism or continental rationalism, though it is perhaps compatible with modern rationalism.

Empiricism is generally regarded as being at the heart of the modern scientific method, that our theories should be based on our observations of the world rather than on intuition or faith; that is, empirical research, inductive reasoning and deductive logic.

Names associated with empiricism include Aristotle, Francis Bacon, John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume.

Empiricism

See also