Empiricism is one the way to study "Theory of Knowledge", in other words it is one the two parts of Epistemology, these are Apriori (Rationalism) and A Posteriori (Based on Experience, Empiricism).
Where as Rationalism is based on reasons and deductions the Empiricism believes that all ideas comes from senses and perception.
According to Empiricism, all ideas are either are simple (like single color) or complex (many simple ideas are combined together). The concept of Induction in Empiricism says," nothing is certain, Solipism takes it to the next level and says," you are the only truth, rest all are the projection of your mind."
The Empirical Confirmation has given Sociology a scientific dimension and through use of hypothesis, data collection, statistical tools, theories can be deducted on a pattern similar to Natural Science.
However, the Empirical Confirmation has certain flaw and hence Sociology theories are completely scientific.
1) There is no sharp distinction between observation and theory; observation of empirical facts commonly depend upon the assumption of some elements of scientific theory
2) Empirical "Facts" are subject to multiple interpretations, same set of data at times can be used to prove contradictory hypothesis.
No comments:
Post a Comment