Empiricism

by Aristotle and John Locke

Empiricism asserts that the source of knowledge about an object is the object itself, and knowledge is the result of perceiving the external world. This branch of epistemology is based on the idea that our knowledge is formed through sensory experience, which leaves “imprints” on our minds.

The metaphor of knowledge as an imprint originates in Aristotle’s On the Soul. In it, sensation — the foundation of knowledge for empiricists — is described as the soul’s ability to receive the form of the world without its substance, “just as wax takes the imprint of a ring made of iron or gold.”

This concept was further developed by philosophers like John Locke, who proposed the idea of the “tabula rasa” — the blank slate upon which experience leaves its marks. Nature and society inscribe their writings on our minds, and the traces they leave behind are what we call knowledge of this world.

Empiricists believe that all of our knowledge is based on experience, and nothing exists in the mind that was not first in the senses. This approach emphasizes the importance of observation and the experimental method in understanding the world.

empiricism knowledge epistemology