English

Noun

empiricism ‎(plural empiricisms)

1. A pursuit of knowledge purely through experience, especially by means of observation and sometimes by experimentation.
   • 1885, Gerard F. Cobb, "Musical Psychics," Proceedings of the Musical Association, 11th Session, p. 119:

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

   • 1951, Albert Einstein, letter to Maurice Solovine (Jan. 1), in Letters to Solovine:

     I have found no better expression than "religious" for confidence in the rational nature of reality.... Whenever this feeling is absent, science degenerates into uninspired empiricism.

   • 2001, Mark Zimmermann, "The Stillness of Painting: Robert Kingston and His Contemporaries," PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, vol. 23, no. 3 (Sep), p. 71:

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

2. (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.)^[1][2]
   • 1893, James Seth, "The Truth of Empiricism." The Philosophical Review, vol. 2, no. 5 (Sep.), p. 552:

     Empiricism teaches us that we are unceasingly and intimately in contact with a full, living, breathing Reality, that experience is a constant communion with the real.

   • 1950, Virgil Hinshaw, Jr., "Review of Socratic Method and Critical Philosophy, Selected Essays by Leonard Nelson," Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 11, no. 2 (Dec.), p. 285:

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

   • 1958, Ernest A. Moody, "Empiricism and Metaphysics in Medieval Philosophy," The Philosophical Review, vol. 67, no. 2 (Apr.), p. 151:

     Empiricism is the doctrine that human knowledge is grounded on the kind of experience, mostly achieved through the five senses, whose objects are particular events occurring at particular times and in particular places.

3. (medicine, dated) A practice of medicine founded on mere experience, without the aid of science or a knowledge of principles; ignorant and unscientific practice; the method or practice of an empiric.
   • 1990, Alison Klairmont Lingo, "Review of Professional and Popular Medicine in France, 1770-1830 by Matthew Ramsey," Journal of Social History, vol. 23, no. 3 (Spring), p. 607:

     Even at the height of its popularity, medical empiricism was the creature of a most unforgiving free market economy. Successful practioners seduced crowds as well as public officials.

Synonyms

• (medical practice founded on experience): charlatanry, quackery

Related terms

• empirical
• empiricist

See also

• rationalism

Translations

References

• "empiricism" at OneLook® Dictionary Search.
• "empiricism" in Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 ed.
• "empiricism" in Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed., at Bartleby.com.
• "empiricism" by F. P. Siegfried, in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Robert Appleton Company, New York, 1911.
• Notes:

1. ↑ Dictionary of Philosophy, Dagobert D. Runes (ed.), Philosophical Library, 1962. See: "Empiricism" by Morris T. Keeton, p. 89 which explains 9 philosophical senses of "empiricism."
2. ↑ The Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Paul Edwards (ed.), Macmillan, 1967. See: "Empiricism" by D. W. Hamlyn, vol. 2, pp. 499-505.