School

Empiricism quotes

Empiricism treats experience as the primary source of ideas and the test of knowledge claims about the world.

Overview

British empiricists such as Locke, Berkeley, and Hume analyze how sensation and reflection generate ideas, and how far certainty extends. Empiricism shapes philosophy of science and everyday standards of evidence.

Historical notes

Early modern empiricism debates innate ideas and causation; later logical empiricism and contemporary naturalistic epistemology continue the lineage in new forms.

Core ideas

  • Ideas derive from experience.
  • Claims about the world require empirical credentials.
  • Skepticism about metaphysics beyond experience is a standing option.
  • Science exemplifies disciplined experiential inquiry.

Thinkers in this archive

Francis Bacon , John Locke , George Berkeley , David Hume

FAQ

What is empiricism?

It is the view that experience is the primary source of knowledge about the world.

Who are the main empiricists?

Locke, Berkeley, and Hume are the classic early modern figures.

Where can I read empiricism quotes?

Browse the verified English passages linked from this school page.

  1. For knowledge itself is power.
  2. Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.
  3. Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience.
  4. Their being is to be perceived.
  5. Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions, and can never pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.
  6. The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it…Reason…teaches all mankind…that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
  7. As far as this consciousness can be extended backwards to any past action or thought, so far reaches the identity of that person.
  8. A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.
  9. For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other.
  10. Reason is wholly inactive, and can never be the source of so active a principle as conscience, or a sense of morals.
  11. Where there is no law, there is no freedom.
  12. Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters.
  13. Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.
  14. Custom, then, is the great guide of human life.
  15. Being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions.
  16. Be a philosopher; but, amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.
  17. Human knowledge and human power meet in one.
  18. It is of great use to the sailor to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom all the depths of the ocean.
  19. Be a philosopher; but amidst all your philosophy, be still a man.
  20. It is evident to any one who takes a survey of the objects of human knowledge, that they are either ideas actually imprinted on the senses; or else such as are perceived by attending to the passions and operations of the mind; or lastly, ideas formed by help of memory and imagination.
  21. That neither our thoughts, nor passions, nor ideas formed by the imagination, exist without the mind, is what everybody will allow.
  22. A spirit is one simple, undivided, active being: as it perceives ideas, it is called understanding, and as it produces or otherwise operates about ideas, it is called will.