A Dictionary of Philosophy, Third Edition
. Any of a variety of views to the effect that either our concepts or our knowledge are, wholly or partly, based on experience through the senses and introspection. The ‘basing’ may refer to psychological origin or, more usually, philosophical justification. For some of the complexities see A PRIORI. Extreme empiricists may confine our knowledge to statements about SENSE DATA, plus perhaps ANALYTIC statements. Less extreme empiricists say that such statements must form the basis on which all our other knowledge is erected (cf. FOUNDATIONALISM). Other empiricists, however, may simply deny that there are any a priori propositions, or any synthetic or non-analytic a priori ones. Or they may say that if there are any a priori propositions, there are still no innate concepts. A weak form of empiricism may say only that we can acquire some knowledge through the senses. An empiricist view of some given concept or proposition bases it somehow on experience.
Sometimes empiricism has taken the form of a doctrine of meaning, saying that a word or sentence has meaning only if rules involving sense experience can be given for applying or verifying it. Analytic sentences are excepted. Such rules may further constitute the meaning. This is often called logical empiricism. For this and consistent empiricism see POSITIVISM.
Radical empiricism is a name for the philosophy of W.James; cf. PRAGMATISM.
Constructive empiricism is B. Van Fraassen’s view that a scientific theory should imply all the truths that can be found by observationin the relevant sphere, even though the theory itself may postulate unobservable entities, ‘Constructive’ refers to its constructing models rather than seeking a logic of discovery.
‘British empiricists’ is a traditional label for Locke, Berkeley and Hume, in particular, and for sundry lesser or later figures regarded as sharing their general outlook. See also RATIONALISM.
H.Moritz (ed.), Challenges to Empiricism, Methuen, 1980. (Selections from leading philosophers, with partly annotated bibliography.)
D.Odegard, ‘Locke as an empiricist’, Philosophy, 1965. (Discusses senses of ‘empiricist’, in connection with Locke’s philosophy). B.Van Fraassen, The Scientific Image, Clarendon, 1980. (Constructive empiricism. See its index.)
R.S.Woolhouse, The Empiricists, Oxford UP, 1988. (Discusses Bacon, Gassendi and Hobbes, as well as Locke, Berkeley and Hume, and without prejudging how far they all are empiricists.)
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