Empiricism

Question 1

What are the basic concepts of empiricism?

Answer 1

We can hold something as true if we can justify it with sense experience. Such as what we hear, smell, touch, etc.
Does not require absolute certainty, and involves the acceptance of potentially fallible methods of obtaining knowledge

Question 2

How is empiricism plausible?

Answer 2

• Fits with the intuitive sense that we can rely on beliefs being true based off sense experience
• fits with our basic understanding of perception
  -has a history of success in the natural sciences

Question 3

What are the main problems with empiricism?

Answer 3

• sense experience is not always reliable
• observations alone don’t provide absolute knowledge
• some observations can be a coincidence or a guess
• many of the things we want to know are not directly observable