Problems of Empiricism

Abstract

Modern science is accustomed to decide all questions about reality by experience and experiment. This remarkable attitude is not at all self-evident. It is rather a late achievement in the history of mankind, and its import cannot be fully understood as long as that fact is not realized. We shall start our exposition, therefore, with a retrospective view of the rise of empirical thinking and the experimental method. Though at the beginning of the modern era empirical research proceeded from certain empirical achievements of antiquity, classical empiricism can be omitted in this brief survey. In antiquity the empirical sciences were considerably surpassed in intellectual influence by metaphysics and rhetoric, and empiricists always were but a small minority among ancient philosophers and scientists. It will be sufficient, therefore, to begin with the Middle Ages.

[Zilsel, as in his essay ‘The Methods of Humanism’, makes use of’ supporting evidence paragraphs’ which are given in smaller print. The original endnotes have been replaced with footnotes; Eds.]