Definitions for empiricismɛmˈpɪr əˌsɪz əm

This page provides all possible meanings and translations of the word empiricism

Random House Webster's College Dictionary

em•pir•i•cismɛmˈpɪr əˌsɪz əm(n.)

  1. empirical method or practice.

  2. the philosophic doctrine that all knowledge is derived from sense experience.

    Category: Philosphy

    Ref: Compare rationalism (def. 2). 2


  4. a conclusion that is arrived at empirically.

Origin of empiricism:


em•pir′i•cist(n.; adj.)

Princeton's WordNet

  1. empiricism, empiricist philosophy, sensationalism(noun)

    (philosophy) the doctrine that knowledge derives from experience

  2. empiricism(noun)

    the application of empirical methods in any art or science

  3. quackery, empiricism(noun)



  1. empiricism(Noun)


  2. empiricism(Noun)

    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.)

  3. empiricism(Noun)

    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.

  4. Origin: from ἐμπειρία

Webster Dictionary

  1. Empiricism(noun)

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

  2. Empiricism(noun)


  3. Empiricism(noun)



  1. Empiricism

    Empiricism is a theory of knowledge which states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience. One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism, idealism, and historicism, empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence, especially sensory experience, in the formation of ideas, over the notion of innate ideas or traditions; empiricists may argue however that traditions arise due to relations of previous sense experiences. Empiricism in the philosophy of science emphasizes evidence, especially as discovered in experiments. It is a fundamental part of the scientific method that all hypotheses and theories must be tested against observations of the natural world rather than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition, or revelation. Philosophers associated with empiricism include Aristotle, Alhazen, Avicenna, Ibn Tufail, Robert Grosseteste, William of Ockham, Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, Robert Boyle, John Locke, George Berkeley, Hermann von Helmholtz, David Hume, Leopold von Ranke, and John Stuart Mill.

The Nuttall Encyclopedia

  1. Empiricism

    a philosophical term applied to the theory that all knowledge is derived from the senses and experience alone, to the rejection of the theory of innate ideas; Locke, in modern times, is the great representative of the school that advocates this doctrine supported by Aristotle.

U.S. National Library of Medicine

  1. Empiricism

    One of the principal schools of medical philosophy in ancient Greece and Rome. It developed in Alexandria between 270 and 220 B.C., the only one to have any success in reviving the essentials of the Hippocratic concept. The Empiricists declared that the search for ultimate causes of phenomena was vain, but they were active in endeavoring to discover immediate causes. The "tripod of the Empirics" was their own chance observations (experience), learning obtained from contemporaries and predecessors (experience of others), and, in the case of new diseases, the formation of conclusions from other diseases which they resembled (analogy). Empiricism enjoyed sporadic continuing popularity in later centuries up to the nineteenth. (From Castiglioni, A History of Medicine, 2d ed, p186; Dr. James H. Cassedy, NLM History of Medicine Division)


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