Empirical

We explain what something empirical is and what empiricism is. Furthermore, what are the characteristics and types of empirical knowledge.

What is something empirical?

The empirical It is that which is based on experience and observation of facts. This term comes from the Greek word empirikostranslatable as “experienced”, that is, something that has been tried or tested before making a decision. Thus, one can speak of “empirical knowledge”, “empirical evidence” or even “empiricism” (an important philosophical perspective that emerged in northern Europe during the Middle Ages).

In general, when we say that something is empirical we mean that it is demonstrable and that it can be directly experienced, that is, that It is not supported by theories or assumptions, but by facts.

One of the procedures used to describe the scientific method (on which all scientific conclusions are based) is known as the empirical-analytical method and consists of verifying the initial hypotheses through contrast or perception of the facts, that is, an empirical verification. For this you can use experiments, observations or measurements.

The term “empirical” can be used in different areas of knowledge and in different contexts, always as a synonym for “effective”, “experimental”, “observable” or even “real”, “concrete”, “irrefutable”.

Empiricism

The philosophical current of empiricism is one that defends the role of experience, sensory perception and real evidence in the formulation of ideas and knowledge. That is, this current maintains with greater or lesser rigidity that the only possible knowledge is that which is derived from experience and the sensible world, that is, from what we can directly perceive and experience.

empiricism emerged at the end of the Middle Ages and beginning of the Renaissance, in the United Kingdomin direct contrast to rationalism, since for the latter human reason and its capacity for deduction was the main way to access knowledge.

Thus, while rationalism reigned in France, the Netherlands and Germany, at the hands of René Descartes (1596-1650), Nicolás Malebranche (1638-1715) and Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677), among other renowned philosophers, in the Empiricism spread in the United Kingdom thanks to the works of Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), George Berkeley (1685-1753), John Locke (1632-1704) and David Hume (1711-1776). . So much so that this philosophical tradition was baptized as “English empiricism.”

According to empiricists, human knowledge can be obtained only a posteriorithat is, as a result of the evaluation and study of lived experiences. for this Sensation (information from the senses) and reflection (mental operations) are combined.. Thus, two fundamental types of ideas are formed:

• The simple ideasborn from the processing of sensations.
• The complex ideasborn from the abstraction and complexity of simple ideas.

Empirical knowledge

Empirical knowledge is that obtained through experience and the direct perception of the world, and not of preconceptions, theories or imaginations. It is one of the types of knowledge that sustain scientific knowledge, and was the contribution to modern thought of the empiricist doctrine born at the end of the 19th century in the United Kingdom.

Empirical knowledge It is obtained from the observation of reality and the mental processing of these impressions.. Thus, two types of empirical knowledge can be formulated:

• Particular empirical knowledge. When it applies to a specific situation or context, and its compliance cannot be asserted in all possible cases.
• Contingent empirical knowledge. When it applies to a current situation whose validity or extension over time cannot be predicted or guaranteed.

In any case, purely empirical knowledge has the following characteristics:

• It is based on experience. It arises directly from our encounter with reality, without prior hypotheses.
• It depends on the sensory. Its main source of information is the senses, what they capture from internal and external reality.
• It is subjective in nature. Since not all individuals perceive reality in the same way, empirical knowledge may vary depending on each person.
• It is communicable, but not verifiable. Since we have no access to other people's experiences other than language, we can know what another experiences but we cannot verify if it is true.
• Lacks own methods. Relying on the senses and experience, it does not put into practice defined methods.

Examples of empirical knowledge

Examples of empirical knowledge are:

• The association between fire and pain with which children learn that fire burns.
• A mother's ability to know when her child is crying because of hunger, sleep, or other reasons.
• The ability to predict rain simply by looking at the color and shape of clouds.
• The knowledge that allows us to recognize which fruits are poisonous after having tried them and having become ill.
• The notion that all objects in the world fall eventually.

Empirical evidence

Empirical evidence is called empirical evidence or demonstrations, that is, that They can be observed and experienced directly, without having to trust the word of another, or theories and assumptions..

Empirical evidence, for example, is the result of an experiment, in which researchers directly observe what happened and can measure it, replicate it, and reproduce it before third parties. This concept is key in the emergence of scientific knowledge, since Experimental methods seek, above all, empirical evidence that supports or refutes their postulates and hypotheses..

Non-empirical knowledge

Non-empirical knowledge is ways of knowing that do not depend on direct experience of the world and that are not perceptible, that is, they cannot be grasped using the senses. For example:

• Religious or mystical knowledge. It is that which is obtained from interpretations and dogmas that link the human being with the divine, that is, with the idea of ​​the existence of God and a transcendent, sacred, unverifiable order.
• intuitive knowledge. It is one that is obtained without any type of formal reasoning and that allows us to anticipate the events that are about to happen, that is, to recognize their patterns and tendencies in reality, even though they cannot be explained or transmitted to third parties.
• philosophical knowledge. It is that which is obtained through the application of human reason in the abstract, from postulates and reasoning of a logical or formal type that have little to do with the direct experimentation of things.

Continue with: Pragmatism

References

• “Empírico, ca” in the Dictionary of the Language of the Royal Spanish Academy.
• “Etymology of Empírico” in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
• “Empirical knowledge” on Wikipedia.
• “Empiricism” in Filosofía.org.
• “Empiricism (philosophy)” in The Encyclopaedia Britannica.