empiricism
Etymology

From empiric + -ism.

Noun

empiricism

  1. (philosophy) A doctrine which holds that the only or, at least, the most reliable source of human knowledge is experience, especially perception by means of the physical senses. (Often contrasted with rationalism.) [from 18th c.]
  2. A pursuit of knowledge purely through experience, especially by means of observation and sometimes by experimentation. [from 19th c.]
    • 1885, Gerard F. Cobb, "Musical Psychics," Proceedings of the Musical Association, 11th Session, p. 119:
      Our whole life in some of its highest and most important aspects is simply empiricism. Empiricism is only another word for experience.
    • 1951, Albert Einstein, letter to Maurice Solovine (Jan. 1), in Letters to Solovine:
      I have found no better expression than "religious" for confidence in the rational nature of reality.... Whenever this feeling is absent, science degenerates into uninspired empiricism.
  3. (social sciences, political science, sociology) used to describe research based on methodology shaped from empirical philosophy (see above), e.g. surveys, statistics, etc.
  4. (medicine, now, chiefly, historical) Medicine as practised by an empiric, founded on mere experience, without the aid of science or a knowledge of principles; folk medicine, quackery. [from 17th c.]
    • 1796, Mary Wollstonecraft, Letters Written in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, Oxford, published 2009, page 105:
      Empiricism is not peculiar to Denmark; and I know of no way of rooting it out, though it be a remnant of exploded witchcraft, till the acquiring a general knowledge of the component parts of the human frame, become a part of public education.
    • 1990, Alison Klairmont Lingo, "Review of Professional and Popular Medicine in France, 1770-1830 by Matthew Ramsey," Journal of Social History, vol. 23, no. 3 (Spring), p. 607:
      Even at the height of its popularity, medical empiricism was the creature of a most unforgiving free market economy. Successful practitioners seduced crowds as well as public officials.
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