Essay Example on Empiricism which can be Defined as a Theory

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Empiricism which can be defined as a theory that state knowledge was gained only or primarily by sensory experiences was several views of epistemology along with rationalism and scepticism rather than rational deduction and innateness Empiricism emphasizes the role of empirical evidence in the formation of ideas over the idea of innate ideas or traditions however the traditions arise due to relations of previous sense experiences Besides it is in the philosophy of science in which emphasizes evidence especially from experiments or empirical research Simply taking the pros and cons of empiricism itself there are loads of space for further discussion One of the advantages of empiricism is that became a method to find truth that rationalism no longer is a necessary to account for how the world runs The wide use of empiricism can be backed up by Galileo Galilei s numerous theories He insist to test every theory empirically if it works within the laws of physics

For example Aristotle s theory of motion in which he used rational thought to explain the motion of objects argument was made that air resistance was responsible for how fast things fell It was later tested on the moon by dropping a feather and a hammer in which results in hitting the ground at the same time However the disadvantage of empiricism is that the empirical evidence we got through our senses may not be accurate Sense data is indirect and sometimes illusion could be occurred Seeing the feather and hammer dropping onto the ground at the same time could be just an illusion Therefore there must be mediation between sensation and perception Empiricists such as John Locke and David Hume emphasize the role of evidence and experience as the main way of justifying our knowledge claims Main way does not mean the only way which could be understand as only adopting empiricism to proof things would limit the possibility of new findings or either distort the truth These are the pros and cons of empiricism itself in general Historical method comprises the techniques of historians to use primary sources secondary writings and evidences for research It emphasises on source criticism classifying contradictory sources reliability etc So taking empiricism as a historical method must consider these rules Historical method are crucial for historiography as well as historical facts It can be defined as something that happened in the past which had left traces in documents which could be used by the historian to restrict it in present In such case under empiricism we have to proof the historical facts are true with empirical evidences However in fact there are so few events in history were empirical just like how the feather and hammer experiment could have some false interpretation from the beginning Kings or people empowered could change how the history was written also historians could not proof whether it really happens in that way due to multiple reasons

Resources ink paper etc back in early history was limited the illiteracy rate is high not much people could write about the history loads of war and natural hazards damaged the primary resources for historian to reference etc Before looking too detail on evaluating is empiricism a reliable way to write historiography empiricism had also took place throughout the past not only present days so that we can fully examine its usefulness and limitations Tracing back to the fifteenth century it began to change The western world was under the influence of Renaissance humanism Various writers began to question the medieval and classical understanding of knowledge acquisition in more fundamental way In terms of political and historical writing Niccolò Machiavelli and Francesco Guicciardini created a new style of writing which they scorn articles that judge everything in comparison Not only the two men bring new ideology to the society Leonardo Da Vinci had once said If you find from your own experience that something is a fact and it contradicts what some authority has written down then you must abandon the authority and base your reasoning on your own findings As the teaching of history changed that the past was conceived of in its relation to the present This is the time history became a novel kind of study and the records The historical revolution by Mr Fussener was not confined to only one country Most part of the Europe had such sign but Italy was the first country to start the revolution People were more interested in explaining how current phenomenon or affairs had come about Besides they were curious about the non providential forms of causation or at least of a way of defining providence Moreover most important element that affect the modern world widely starts to form that is the increased reliance on documents and antiquities as sources to understand the past Last but not least skepticism towards fantasy or the witch legend etc started to grow since the revolution took place But the real break with medieval way of thinking the historical revolution as Fussner calls it occurred in the sixteenth and seventeenth century The father of Galileo Vincenzo Galilei was the inventor of monody He successfully solved musical problems such as tuning and composition In terms of tuning the pitch in relations to string tension mass in stringed instrument and volume of air in wind instruments have significant improvement During the classical period many instruments have problems in terms of the above components

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