empiricism

Noun

empiricism (countable and uncountable, plural empiricisms)

1. 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.)
   • 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.1893 Sep, James Seth, “The Truth of Empiricism.”, in The Philosophical Review, volume 2, number 5, page 552
   • He agrees with Kant that Hume's empiricism is refuted de facto by the example of mathematics, whose judgments are synthetic a priori.1950 Dec, Virgil Hinshaw, Jr., “Review of Socratic Method and Critical Philosophy, Selected Essays by Leonard Nelson”, in Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, volume 11, number 2, page 285
2. A pursuit of knowledge purely through experience, especially by means of observation and sometimes by experimentation.
   • Our whole life in some of its highest and most important aspects is simply empiricism. Empiricism is only another word for experience.1885, Gerard F. Cobb, "Musical Psychics," Proceedings of the Musical Association, 11th Session, p. 119
   • 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.1951, Albert Einstein, letter to Maurice Solovine (Jan. 1), in Letters to Solovine
3. Research methodology shaped from empirical philosophy (see above), e.g. surveys, statistics, etc.
4. (historical) Medicine as practised by an empiric, founded on mere (personal or anecdotal) experience, without the aid of science or a knowledge of principles.
   • Near-synonyms: folk medicine; quackery; charlatanry
   • Empiricism is not peculiar to Denmark; and I know of no way of rooting it out, though it be a remnant of exploded witchcraft, till the acquiring a general knowledge of the component parts of the human frame, become a part of public education.1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Oxford, published 2009, page 105

   Synonyms:

   folk medicine, quackery, charlatanry