Empiricism

Empiricism is the belief in philosophy or psychology that all knowledge is the result of our experiences. (See John Locke's Tabula rasa or "blank slate" theory.) Empiricism is closely allied with (philosophical) materialism and positivism and opposed to Rationalism or Intuitionism.

Empiricism is generally regarded as being at the heart of the modern scientific method, that our theories should be based on our observations of the world rather than on intuition or faith; that is, empirical research, inductive reasoning and deductive logic.

Names associated with empiricism include Aristotle, Francis Bacon, John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume

See also rationalism.