Early modern empiricism

SILVIA MANZO; SOFÍA CALVENTE

Springer encyclopedia of early modern philosophy and the sciences

Srpinger

Año: 2020; p. 1 - 15

Broadly speaking, "empiricism" is a label that usually denotes an epistemological view that emphasizes the role that experience plays in forming concepts and acquiring and justifying knowledge. This entry offers a reconstruction of the historiographical origins, criticisms and revisions of this historiographical category. Thereafter it focus on the meaning of scepticism in the early modern period. Firstly, it examines critically the positions of the first representatives of empiricism (Bacon,Gassendi and Hobbes) according to certain historiographical narratives. Second, it offers a deep analyses of the central empiricist thesis ascribed to the so called "British empiricists" (Locke, Berkeley and Hume) on the origin of ideas and knowledge justification. Finally, it explores the connections of empiricism with scepticism, materialism and atheism in the early modern period.