Humanity has been a creature that questions itself and the environment since its existence. Philosophy is the result of such a search. Since knowledge is considered as the basis of life, how we obtain knowledge has always been the primary subject of philosophy. Some say that we know knowledge from birth, some say that we find it by thinking, while empiricism says that all existing knowledge is acquired as a result of one’s experiences.
Empiricism is different from rationalism known as rationalism. Because empiricists say that we acquire knowledge not through thinking, but through experiences and sensations. This philosophical view, which has many representatives throughout history, is even the basis of atheism, according to some. It may seem a little confusing. Let’s see in all details what empiricism is, who its representatives are, and what they defend in a way that everyone can understand.
What is empiricism, what does it advocate, who are its representatives?
Let’s start with the basics, what is empiricism?
Empiricism, also known as empiricism and empiricism; It is a philosophical view that says that knowledge is obtained through the senses and experiences. Since knowledge is acquired through experiences and sensations, man is a tabula rasa, a blank slate, at the moment he is born. As he lives, this plate fills up and man becomes a knowledgeable person.
Yes, we acquire knowledge as a result of experience, whatever you say, wait, empiricism has another fine idea about knowledge. It is not enough to acquire knowledge through experience, the accuracy of that knowledge is also measured by experiment. In other words, if you say that I have such knowledge according to my senses and experiences, empiricists will come and say, let’s show them. At this point, there is a big difference between rationality and rationality.
The etymological origin of the philosophy of empiricism, like many of its counterparts, is based on Greek. Empiricism, which comes from the root of empiric, which means experience in Greek, was describing the physician who turned into a specialist thanks to his practice, although he did not receive training at that time. Over time, this definition developed and became applicable to all social sciences and even to life itself.
What does empiricism advocate?
Empiricism rejects intuition, rationality, and revelation. He argues that the basis of knowledge is experience and that the accuracy of the obtained knowledge can only be proven through experimentation. For this reason, science is considered empirical in its own right as it is an empirical field.
For empiricists, how knowledge is obtained is extremely important. An explanation is not enough as I thought and found it. Show how you found it, let’s see and accept the idea is dominant. The sensation from which information is obtained should not be a feeling, it should be a situation that can be understood by everyone with their sense organs.
Who are the representatives and pioneers of empiricism?
It would be unfair to them to simply list the representatives of empiricism. Because each of them has unique contributions to the empiricism that emerged in ancient times. The foundations of empiricism were laid by Democritus and Epicurus in the first age. Both presented their thoughts on the evidence of science at that time.
Tabula rasa, one of the basic concepts of empiricism, was put forward by the Iranian philosopher Avicenna in the 11th century. In the 12th century, the Arab philosopher Ibn Tufail proved the concept of tabula rasa with an experiment. As a result of this experiment, it was revealed that an adult and a small child living on a desert island have a similar mental structure, that is, knowledge is gained through experience.
Empiricism became a methodology by the English School. This movement, which emerged in the 17th and 18th centuries, has names such as John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume. These names defended empiricism by challenging rationalists such as Descartes, Leibniz and Spinoza.
John Locke, who formulated empiricism:
A separate chapter should be opened for the English philosopher John Locke, because he formulated empiricism in his 1690 essay An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Advocating the concept of tabula rasa, Locke denied that anything is knowable without reference to an experience. Including the knowledge of the existence of God.
The Irish philosopher and bishop George Berkeley, fearing that Locke’s view would pave the way for atheism, discussed a different form of empiricism in 1710 in his treatise on the Principles of Human Knowledge. This approach of Berkeley, which claims that even experience, experience and sensation is the proof of God himself, was later named as subjective idealism.
Scottish philosopher David Hume developed the ideas of Locke and Berkeley, adding skepticism to the thought of empiricism. Hume divided knowledge into ideas and facts. The cases could be easily obtained with experience. But the ideas were not like that. He argued that since even basic ideas such as the existence of the self cannot be definitively established by the mind, we accept them instinctively.
Modern empiricism:
Empiricism, formulated by studies done in the 17th and 18th centuries, matured in the 19th and 20th centuries. John Stuart Mill, with his work in the 19th century, took the ideas of Hume and Berkeley one step further, arguing that all inductive reasoning, including mathematics, is a permanent possibility of sensation. This idea is called phenomenalism, that is, extreme empiricism.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, forms of thought emerged that united under the name of pragmatism. Pragmatic considerations focused on the commonalities of empiricism and rationalism, two opposing ideas. Names like CS Peirce and William James have spawned some forms of thought called radical empiricism.
British empiricism, working on empiricism in the 20th century, gained new insights. Logical empiricism, also called logical positivism, is the product of this period. Names such as Gottlob Frege, Bertrand Russell, and Ludwig Wittgenstein have put forward some extreme empirical considerations that are not generally accepted.
What are the differences between empiricism and rationalism?
While empiricism argues that knowledge is gained through sense and experience, rationalism says that knowledge is gained intuitively and through reason. Unless it is radical, rationalists do not deny sense and experience, but they emphasize the role of intuition and reason in the process of acquiring knowledge while experiencing them. Pragmatism finds a middle ground by saying that both ideas have their ups and downs.
We talked about the details you need to know about the subject by answering the curious questions such as what is empiricism, which argues that knowledge will be obtained through sensation and experience and proven through experiment, what does it defend, what are its representatives. You can share your thoughts on the philosophy of empiricism in the comments.
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