empiricism

[em-pir-uh-siz-uh m] /ɛmˈpɪr əˌsɪz əm/
noun
1.
empirical method or practice.
2.
Philosophy. the doctrine that all knowledge is derived from sense experience.
Compare rationalism (def 2).
3.
undue reliance upon experience, as in medicine; quackery.
4.
an empirical conclusion.
Origin
1650-60; empiric + -ism
Related forms
empiricist, noun, adjective
antiempiricism, noun
antiempiricist, noun, adjective
nonempiricism, noun
proempiricism, noun, adjective
proempiricist, noun
Examples from the web for empiricism
  • Now he writes pop songs about scientists who were less absurd about their empiricism.
  • The champions of empiricism show an unattractive hubris when they go after what they see as pseudoscience.
  • We are finite emotional creatures, but empiricism helps us to understand where our weak points are, and possibly overcome them.
  • But it was really important to us to stay rooted in empiricism.
  • And this is a subject that clearly arouses a lot of strong feelings and is thus in sore need of more empiricism.
  • The empiricism that now dominated philosophy and science inspired new mapping.
  • Name it and the empiricism studies that support your hypothesis.
  • But there is something paradoxical in the idea of radical empiricism itself.
  • Casual empiricism suggests that the anchoring effect of homeownership is huge.
  • First, economics is a social science whose empiricism is questionable at best.
British Dictionary definitions for empiricism

empiricism

/ɛmˈpɪrɪˌsɪzəm/
noun
1.
(philosophy) the doctrine that all knowledge of matters of fact derives from experience and that the mind is not furnished with a set of concepts in advance of experience Compare intuitionism, rationalism
2.
the use of empirical methods
3.
medical quackery; charlatanism
Derived Forms
empiricist, noun, adjective
Word Origin and History for empiricism
n.

1650s, in the medical sense, from empiric + -ism. General sense is from 1796.

Were I obliged to give a short name to the attitude in question, I should call it that of radical empiricism, in spite of the fact that such brief nicknames are nowhere more misleading than in philosophy. I say 'empiricism' because it is contented to regard its most assured conclusions concerning matters of fact as hypotheses liable to modification in the course of future experience; and I say 'radical,' because it treats the doctrine of monism itself as an hypothesis, and, unlike so much of the half way empiricism that is current under the name of positivism or agnosticism or scientific naturalism, it does not dogmatically affirm monism as something with which all experience has got to square. The difference between monism and pluralism is perhaps the most pregnant of all the differences in philosophy. [William James, preface to "The Sentiment of Rationality" in "The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy," 1897]

empiricism in Medicine

empiricism em·pir·i·cism (ěm-pēr'ĭ-sĭz'əm)
n.

  1. Employment of empirical methods, as in science.

  2. The practice of medicine that disregards scientific theory and relies solely on practical experience.

em·pir'i·cist n.