TITLE:
A Critical Analysis of Empiricism
AUTHORS:
F. M. Anayet Hossain
KEYWORDS:
Empiricism, Skepticism, Generalizations
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Philosophy,
Vol.4 No.3,
August
6,
2014
ABSTRACT: Empiricism is a philosophical theory which argues that human knowledge
is derived entirely from sensory experience. As a branch of epistemology,
empiricism disregards the concept of instinctive ideas and focuses entirely on
experience and evidence as it relates to sensory perception. Empiricism is a
philosophical school holding that knowledge can only be (or is primarily)
gained from sensory experience. Accordingly, it rejects any (or much) use of a
priori reasoning in the gathering and analysis of knowledge. It rivals
rationalism according to which reason is the ultimate source of knowledge. The
philosophy of empiricism was first put forth in John Locke’s An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding. Locke argued that the only way by which human acquire knowledge
is through experience. Locke firmly argued that humans are incapable of
formulating or possessing inherent ideas. The aim of this paper is to explain
that the traditional empiricist standpoint in the fields of epistemology and
then try to show that it is not adequate for explaining some things relevant to
these fields. For that the traditional empiricist methods needs to be
supplemented by extra-logical principles that are not strictly empirical.