EMPIRICAL • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Empirical

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/ˌɛmpˈɪrɪkəl/ Listen

adjective

Empirical, Empiric adj.

Pertaining to, or founded upon, experiment or experience; depending upon the observation of phenomena; versed in experiments. "In philosophical language, the term empirical means simply what belongs to or is the product of experience or observation." "The village carpenter... lays out his work by empirical rules learnt in his apprenticeship."

Depending upon experience or observation alone, without due regard to science and theory; said especially of medical practice, remedies, etc.; wanting in science and deep insight; as, empiric skill, remedies.

Empirical formula. (Chem.) See under Formula.

Synonyms: See Transcendental.

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Etymology of 'Empirical'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Empirical" Quotes from Famous Books

... represents him as seeking pleasurable, affective states. The difficulty of understanding the essential nature of pleasure and pain, the fact that what is pleasure to one man is pain to another, rather discredited this as a psychological explanation. I think we may phrase the situation fairly on an empirical basis when we say that seeking arises in instinct but receives its impulse to continuity by some agreeable affective state of satisfaction. Man steers towards pleasure and satisfaction of some type or other, but the force is ...

— The Foundations of Personality • Abraham Myerson

... and sending me out every day with his doctor, the famous Styrneus, the sworn foe of Van Swieten, a still more famous physician. Although Styrneus was undoubtedly a learned man, I thought him somewhat extravagant and empirical. His system was that of Asclepiades, considered as exploded since the time of the great Boerhaave; ...

— The Memoires of Casanova, Complete • Jacques Casanova de Seingalt

... hostile spirits, or caused by the anger of a god, so that medicines, no matter how powerful, could only be expected to assuage the pain; but magic alone, incantations, spells and prayers, could remove the disease. Experience brought much of the wisdom we call empirical, and the records, extending for thousands of years, show that the Egyptians employed emetics, purgatives, enemata, diuretics, diaphoretics and even bleeding. They had a rich pharmacopoeia derived from the animal, vegetable and mineral kingdoms. ...

— The Evolution of Modern Medicine • William Osler

... history. That is why political treatises are so disappointing. The philosopher is content to generalize, and does not know the facts. On the other hand, the historian who knows the facts has not the capacity of generalization. Politics must be mainly empirical. The political thinker does not reason forward from the past to the present, but backwards from the present to the past. He studies the present results of the mature experience of many ages, and then explains the distant past in ...

— German Problems and Personalities • Charles Sarolea

... mind will also control all that man can do. That science can be used by anyone, mind you. If you'll read between the lines you'll see what a hidden struggle is shaping up for control of it as soon as it reaches maturity and empirical useability." ...

— The Sensitive Man • Poul William Anderson

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