Analysis of Positivism and Empiricism Philosophy Essay
Defining empiricism. The word empiricism comes from the Greek word 'empeiria', which means 'experience'. As a philosophical concept, empiricism refers to a particular way of acquiring knowledge. The simple premise is that the only things we can claim to know are what we gather from our senses. We can only know what we have. Empiricism is the philosophical position according to which the senses are the ultimate source of human knowledge. It contrasts with rationalism, according to which reason is the ultimate source of knowledge. In Western philosophy, empiricism has a long and distinguished list of followers. It became especially popular during the 19th century. Logical positivism, also known as logical empiricism, rational empiricism, or neopositivism, emerged as a major philosophical movement in the 10th century. It was a school of thought that aimed to reform the foundations of philosophy by integrating the precision and methodologies of mathematics and the natural sciences. The dispute between rationalism and empiricism takes place primarily within epistemology, the branch of philosophy devoted to studying the nature, sources, and limits of knowledge. Knowledge itself can be about many different things and is usually divided into three main categories: knowledge of the external world, knowledge of the internal,