EMPIRICISM • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Empiricism

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/ɛmpˈɪrəsˌɪzəm/ Listen

noun

Empiricism n.

The method or practice of an empiric; pursuit of knowledge by observation and experiment.

Specifically, a practice of medicine founded on mere experience, without the aid of science or a knowledge of principles; ignorant and unscientific practice; charlatanry; quackery.

(Metaph.) The philosophical theory which attributes the origin of all our knowledge to experience.

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Etymology of 'Empiricism'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Empiricism" Quotes from Famous Books

... of those who happily remain ignorant of this successful empiricism, it is desirable that the record and exposition of it be made brief. There is little danger that it will long survive its author. But the present subjects of it are sufficiently numerous to deserve some pity. The following is ...

— The Grammar of English Grammars • Goold Brown

... sixteenth century to justify their rejection of certain doctrines were used by later generations to prepare the way for still greater inroads upon the contents of Christianity, and finally to justify an attitude of doubt concerning the very foundations on which Christianity was based. Empiricism, Sensualism, Materialism, and Scepticism in philosophy, undermined dogmatic Christianity, and prepared the way for the irreligious and indifferentist opinions, that found such general favour among the educated and higher ...

— History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French • Rev. James MacCaffrey

... endeavoured to express by dedicating the following sermons to his memory; and the offering is so far at least appropriate, in that the main work of his life was to spiritualize, not only our philosophy, but our theology; to raise them both above the empiricism into which they had long been dwindling, and to set them free from the technical trammels of logical systems. Whether he is as much studied by the genial young men of the present day, as he was twenty or thirty years ago, I have no adequate means of judging: ...

— Reminiscences of Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robert Southey • Joseph Cottle

... did for philosophy Hippocrates may be said to have done for medicine. As Socrates devoted himself to ethics, and the application of right thinking to good conduct, so Hippocrates insisted upon the practical nature of the art, and in placing its highest good in the benefit of the patient. Empiricism, experience, the collection of facts, the evidence of the senses, the avoidance of philosophical speculations, were the distinguishing features of Hippocratic medicine. One of the most striking contributions of Hippocrates is ...

— The Evolution of Modern Medicine • William Osler

... I take it, will dispute this proposition. The road is a long one and beset with all sorts of thorns and briars, such as Mr. Emerson's philosophy will hardly eradicate from the wayside. Even the most refined empiricism will find it difficult to stomach his stomachic theory of the universe, which lands all atomic or corpuscular philosophy in a digestive sac, such as Jack Falstaff bore about him with its measureless capacity for potations and Eastcheap ...

— Life: Its True Genesis • R. W. Wright

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