Empiristen

Empiristen, or empiricists, are proponents of empiricism, the epistemological view that all knowledge derives mainly from sensory experience. In Dutch usage the term refers to philosophers and scientists who emphasize observation and experiment as the primary sources of understanding, rather than inherited ideas or purely rational deduction.

Modern empiricism emerged in early modern Europe. Foundational work by Francis Bacon promoted inductive reasoning and the experimental method. In Britain, John Locke argued that the mind at birth is a blank slate and ideas arise from experience. George Berkeley developed a form of empiricism centered on perception and language, while David Hume raised skeptical challenges about causation and induction, testing the limits of empirical knowledge.

Core tenets include the reliance on sensory data, the rejection of knowledge grounded in innate ideas, and the use of induction to generalize from observed cases. Empirists emphasize experiment and observation as the basis for science, and they often seek to build reliable knowledge through repeatable procedures.

Criticism has come from rationalists who posit innate structures or ideas, and from Kant who argued that some a priori concepts shape experience. In contemporary philosophy and science, empiricism persists in naturalized epistemology and evidence-based methods, while debates continue about the scope and limits of empirical knowledge.