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Empiricism
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Empiricism is the theory proposed by philosophers and psychologists that all knowledge and behavior are acquired through experience, and are not at all attributable to inborn or innate characteristics or traits. The English philosopher John Locke (1632-1704) developed the early ideas of empiricism, publishing in 1690 his Essay Concerning Human Understanding. He believed that infants are born with no innate moral sense, attitudes, or knowledge in any form. Locke envisioned the human mind at birth as a blank slate (tabula rasa), on which experience will record knowledge.
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Empiricism is the philosophical concept that experience, which is based on observation and experimentation, is the source of knowledge. According to empiricism, only the information that a person gathers with his or her senses should be used to make decisions, without regard to reason or to either religious or political teachings. Empiricism gained credibility with the rise of experimental science during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and it continues to be studied by many scientists today. Empiricists have included English philosopher John Locke (1632–1704), who asserted that there is no such thing as innate (having at birth) ideas—that the mind is born blank and all knowledge is derived from human experience.
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Constructive Empiricism forsakes metaphysical speculation and is simply concerned with whether scientific theories are empirically adequate. Thus, it argues that whether or not the observable entities of physics are real is beside the scientific point.
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Empiricism in philosophy postulates that all knowledge derives from experience. The doctrine of empiricism was first formulated by John Locke in the 17th century, though the idea originated among Greek physicians and was developed in the thought of Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas and Francis Bacon as well as more modern philosophers.
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Empiricism is characterised, on the one hand, by an uncritical attitude towards the categories through which Experience is grasped, and on the other by rejection of the significance of Reason in acquiring knowledge. This is why, historically, Empiricism could not answer the critique of Rationalism and fell into scepticism. Experience does not by itself give necessary and universal knowledge. Experience must be supplemented by the activity of Reason. The chief defect of Empiricism is that it views experience passively, whereas in order to retain a consistent materialist understanding of experience it is necessary to recognise that it is the practical activity of people changing the world which is the condition and source of knowledge. Further, knowledge only arises in and through definite social relations, through which people produce the forms of activity under which experience can be grasped; but for Empricism, experience is not a social activity, but simply a passive, sensual process.
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From the perspective of Constructive Empiricism science educators should not be concerned with whether a student's model is wrong but only with whether it agrees with the empirical evidence; that is, whether it is empirically adequate. Thus, from this perspective it makes no difference if this agreement is satisfying to the student in some subjective sense.
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