English Explanatory Dictionary

empiricism

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. 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.)
  2. A pursuit of knowledge purely through experience, especially by means of observation and sometimes by experimentation.
  3. Research methodology shaped from empirical philosophy (see above), e.g. surveys, statistics, etc.
  4. Medicine as practised by an empiric, founded on mere (personal or anecdotal) experience, without the aid of science or a knowledge of principles.

Pronunciation

LL-Q1860 (eng)-Sumxr-empiricism.wav

Word forms

empiricism empiricisms

Etymology

From empiric + -ism.

Synonyms

folk medicine quackery charlatanry

Related words

empirical empiricist rationalism

Derived words

abstracted empiricism antiempiricism metempiricism neoempiricism postempiricism radical empiricism

Translations

Bulgarian: емпиризъм Catalan: empirisme Chinese Mandarin: 經驗主義 /经验主义 Chinese Mandarin: 經驗論 /经验论 Czech: empirismus Dutch: empirisme Finnish: empirismi French: empirisme German: Empirismus Greek: εμπειρισμός Greek: εμπειριοκρατία Hindi: अनुभववाद Hindi: इंद्रियानुभववाद Icelandic: reynsluhyggja Icelandic: raunhyggja Japanese: 経験論 Japanese: 経験主義 Kazakh: эмпиризм Korean: 경험론 Polish: empiryzm Polish: aposterioryzm Portuguese: empirismo Romanian: empirism Russian: эмпиризм Spanish: empirismo Swedish: empirism Tamil: பட்டறிவியம் Thai: ประสบการณ์นิยม Ukrainian: емпіризм Vietnamese: chủ nghĩa kinh nghiệm
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