Empiricism facts for kids
In philosophy, empiricism is a theory that states that all knowledge comes from experience.
'Experience' is sometimes translated as 'sense data', i.e. we cannot know anything except by information which comes through our senses.
The British philosophers John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume, clarified some of its basic ideas in the 17th and 18th century, building on the ideas of classical philosopher Aristotle.
Empiricism is one of several competing views about how we know things, part of the branch of philosophy called epistemology, or "study of knowledge". Materialism and physicalism share some of attitudes of empiricism.
Images for kids
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A drawing of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) from 1271
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David Hume's empiricism led to numerous philosophical schools.
See also
In Spanish: Empirismo para niños