empiricism

American  

[em-pir-uh-siz-uhm] / ɛmˈpɪr əˌsɪz əm /

noun

1. empirical method or practice.

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

3. undue reliance upon experience, as in medicine; quackery.

4. an empirical conclusion.

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empiricism British  

/ 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

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Other Word Forms

• antiempiricism noun
• antiempiricist noun
• empiricist noun
• nonempiricism noun
• proempiricism noun
• proempiricist noun

Etymology

Origin of empiricism

First recorded in 1650–60; empiric + -ism

Example Sentences

Some will say it is empiricism: observation and description of the world.

From Scientific American

What about the charge — partly vindicated, I admit, by the small number of radical postmodernists in our ranks — that humanists in academia downplay “empiricism and evidence,” as The Lancet put it?

From New York Times

Secular people are generally more trusting of scientific empiricism, and various studies have shown that the nonreligious are more likely to accept the evidence behind human-generated climate change.

From Salon

You may have your own answer to this question, but we do not get to fall back on empiricism.

From New York Times

A review of Everylegalvote.com shows an attempt to delegitimize the election under a veneer of empiricism by drawing on murky and debunked theories.

From New York Times