radical empiricism

noun

1. (in the philosophy of William James) the doctrine that the only proper subject matter of philosophy is that which can be defined in terms of experience, and that relations are a part of experience.

2. sensationalism.

Other Word Forms

• radical empiricist noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of radical empiricism¹

First recorded in 1895–1900

Example Sentences

He trusts his own experience — his version of what William James called “radical empiricism.”

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James called “radical empiricism”—swears, not a lot, just enough.

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And the best way to get at Absolute Truth is simply to drop all thought and pay close attention to immediate perception, aka Zen meditation, aka radical empiricism.

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A rat-a-tat of surprising results over the past few years has supported this radical empiricism and done a lot to challenge traditional dualist philosophy.

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The narrator of Arthur Machen’s “Novel of the White Powder,” for example, practices a kind of radical empiricism, heaping scorn upon those who “timidly hinted that perhaps the senses are not, after all, the eternal, impenetrable bounds of all knowledge.”

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