Empiricism - this is what? Basic Provisions

From the time of antiquity, mankind has been interested in the issues of cognition. Philosophical thought developed as the individual learned the world and himself in it. Even in ancient times such fundamental sciences as mathematics, physics, history, philosophy were born . Then the question arose that there is a way of knowing the truth and on what it should be based. It was at this time that such currents emerged as dogmatism, pragmatism, empiricism.

Empiricism as a philosophy

An empiric is that which is based directly on practical activity. That is, what is obtained through human experience. This concept underlies the eponymous philosophical trend. Sensual experience is absolute for the empiricist. This is his essence and source of knowledge. Knowledge arises from the processing of a person's sensory impulses.

Francis Bacon is the founder of empiricism

The founder of the current is F. Bacon, thanks to which empiricism was framed in a mature philosophical concept. Later, a number of trends arose within it - first of all, positive and logical empiricism. Bacon insisted that for the cognition it is necessary to purify the perception and mind from empty idols and gain experience through experimentation and observation of nature. The main idols of Bacon are: tribe, cave, market, theater. Empiricism opposes itself to rationalistic currents and religious scholasticism.

The Truth in Empiricism

Rationalists and empiricists disagree in the understanding of the sources of knowledge of the truth. The first see it in reliable conclusions and urge nothing to take on faith, absolutizing logic and deductive method. While empiricism is a flow based on induction. The main source of truth is his adherents see the sensory experience of man (empiricism), his sensations. The main task is to realize the sensation, to process it and to convey the truth extracted from it to the person in a primordial, undistorted form. The main source of knowledge for the empiricist is, first of all, nature, observation of it and action in it, giving rise to sensation. This teaching is close to such sciences as biology, medicine, physics, astronomy.

Truth in empiricism is the result of living contemplation, which is expressed in such forms:

• sensation (mirroring in the mind of an individual the properties and sides of something, affecting the senses);

• Perception (creating an integral image of the cognizable object as a result of the synthesis of sensations);

• Presentation (meaningful result of generalization of visual-sensory empiricism, not perceived now, but influenced in the past).

In the process of cognition of the truth, people use visual, taste, tactile, auditory sensations, which are combined into representations with the help of memory and imagination. The empiricist explains this by the presence in the human body of the exteroreceptive (sensory organs) and interoceptive (signals about the internal state) systems. Thus, the sensually-emotional and sensually sensitive components are the basis on which empiricists construct the criteria of truth and objective cognition.