empiricism

1. (philosophy) 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.)Examples: "Empiricism teaches us that we are unceasingly and intimately in contact with a full, living, breathing Reality, that experience is a constant communion with the real."; "He agrees with Kant that Hume's empiricism is refuted de facto by the example of mathematics, whose judgments are synthetic a priori."; "Empiricism is the doctrine that human knowledge is grounded on the kind of experience, mostly achieved through the five senses, whose objects are particular events occurring at particular times and in particular places."countableuncountable

2. (social sciences, political science, sociology) Research methodology shaped from empirical philosophy (see above), e.g. surveys, statistics, etc.countableuncountable

3. (medicine, now chiefly historical) Medicine as practised by an empiric, founded on mere (personal or anecdotal) experience, without the aid of science or a knowledge of principles.Examples: "Near-synonyms: folk medicine; quackery; charlatanry"; "Empiricism is not peculiar to Denmark; and I know of no way of rooting it out, though it be a remnant of exploded witchcraft, till the acquiring a general knowledge of the component parts of the human frame, become a part of public education."; "Even at the height of its popularity, medical empiricism was the creature of a most unforgiving free market economy. Successful practitioners seduced crowds as well as public officials."countablehistoricaluncountable