empeirikós

Empeirikós (Greek: εμπειρικός) is an adjective and noun meaning empirical or experienced, and it also designates a person who relies on experience as the basis for knowledge or practice. The term comes from empeira, experience, with the suffix -ikos forming an adjective that denotes relation to experience.

In philosophy and science, empeirikós describes knowledge, methods, or attitudes derived from observation and sensory experience rather than from priori reasoning or theoretical deduction. The concept is central to the distinction between empiricism and rationalism: empiricism emphasizes evidence from the senses and inductive reasoning as the source of knowledge, while rationalist approaches stress reason and deduction as primary.

In ancient Greek thought, empeirikós was used to contrast with logikós (rational or logical) and with schools that stressed theoretical argument. In Hellenistic medicine, the Empiric School (Empirikai) emerged as a movement that valued patient observation and case histories over deductive anatomy or theoretical speculation, seeking to base treatment on repeated, remembered successes. This approach influenced medical practice for centuries and interacted with other medical traditions of the time.

In modern usage, empeirikós persists in Greek as empeirikós meaning empirical or experiential. In English, the cognates empirical, empiric, and empiricism carry similar meanings: knowledge or methods grounded in observation and experiment, often framed as inductive rather than deductive. The term can carry a neutral tone or a slight pejorative nuance, depending on context, sometimes implying a practical orientation at the expense of theoretical justification.

See also: empiricism, empiricist, empirical science.