Okuzeka
Philosophy vocabulary · Schools and Movements

Empiricism

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

/ɪmˈpɪrɪsɪzəm/nounCore term

In philosophy, empiricism means: The view that all or most of our knowledge comes from experience through the senses, rather than from reason alone.

In Turkish: deneycilik, empirizm, ampirizm

How it is used

Usually taught alongside rationalism. The classic empiricists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are Locke, Berkeley and Hume. A follower is an empiricist; the adjective empirical has a broader, everyday scientific meaning.

Example sentences

  1. Locke's empiricism starts from the claim that the mind begins as a blank slate.

  2. Hume pushed empiricism to skeptical conclusions about causation and the self.

Common collocations

  • British empiricism
  • logical empiricism
  • radical empiricism
  • empiricism and rationalism
  • rationalismThe view that reason, rather than sense experience, is the main source of knowledge, and that some knowledge is innate or a priori.
  • tabula rasaThe idea that the mind at birth is like a blank slate with no built-in ideas, so that all its contents come from experience.
  • a posterioriDescribes knowledge or justification that depends on experience or observation, such as knowing that water boils at 100°C at sea level.
  • empiricalBased on observation, experience or experiment rather than on pure reasoning or theory.

More terms: Schools and Movements

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: