Empirismi

Empirismi, or empiricism, is a family of epistemological theories that hold that knowledge about the world originates in sensory experience. It emphasizes observation, experiment, and evidence gathered through the senses, and often treats the mind at birth as a blank slate, devoid of innate ideas. In contrast to rationalist traditions that privilege reason or a priori principles, empiricism locates justification for beliefs in experience and the testimony of the senses.

In ancient philosophy, figures such as Aristotle stressed careful observation of nature, laying early ground for empirical study. In the modern era, John Locke argued that the mind is a tabula rasa, with ideas formed from simple sensations that combine into complex ideas. George Berkeley argued that existence consists in being perceived, directing attention to the role of perception. David Hume pushed empiricism further by distinguishing impressions from ideas and by showing that much knowledge—such as causal relations and induction—is not justified by experience alone, which generated scepticism about natural science's absolute certainty.

Impact and methods: Empiricism underpins the scientific method, which relies on observation, measurement, and repeatable experiments to test hypotheses. The approach has diversified into variants such as scientific empiricism, materialist empiricism, and, in the 20th century, logical empiricism or logical positivism, which sought to ground meaningful statements in empirically verifiable language. Critics, including rationalists and Kant, have argued that experience presupposes a priori concepts or structures, and that induction cannot guarantee certainty.

Related topics include empiricism, rationalism, positivism, induction, and falsifiability.