Empiricism

Empiricism is the view that experience is the primary source of knowledge about the world. It emphasizes observation and sensory evidence in forming and testing beliefs.

Sensation: The detection of stimuli by sensory systems, such as vision, hearing, and touch. Sensory experience supplies the basic evidence that empiricists treat as a source of knowledge.
John Locke: An English philosopher whose account of the mind as initially unwritten became central to modern empiricism. Locke argued that ideas arise from sensation and reflection rather than innate principles.
Rationalism: The view that reason, rather than sensory experience, is a primary source of knowledge. Rationalism is empiricism's classic early modern rival over knowledge's foundations.
Scientific method: A systematic approach to inquiry that uses observation, hypothesis formation, testing, and revision. Its experimental practices institutionalize empiricist demands for publicly checkable evidence.
Tabula rasa: The idea that the mind begins without built-in content and is shaped by experience. Locke's blank-slate account became a vivid expression of empiricist psychology.
Observation: The deliberate noticing and recording of features or events, often to gather evidence. Empirical inquiry turns experience into evidence through systematic observation.
George Berkeley: An Irish philosopher who argued that sensible objects exist only as perceived by minds. Berkeley pushed empiricism toward idealism by rejecting matter as an unperceived substrate.
Innate ideas: Ideas or principles held to be present in the mind independently of experience. Their existence directly challenges the empiricist claim that ideas originate in experience.
Experimentalism: An approach that gives controlled experiment a central role in producing and evaluating knowledge. Experiments extend ordinary experience by isolating variables and testing causal claims.
Problem of induction: The challenge of justifying inferences from observed cases to unobserved cases or future events. Hume showed that experience cannot deductively guarantee the regularities induction assumes.

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