Single Idea 10404

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / D. Empiricism / 5. Empiricism Critique]

Full Idea

Extreme empiricists wind up unable to explain much of anything.

Gist of Idea

Extreme empiricists can hardly explain anything

Source

Chris Swoyer (Properties [2000], 2.3)

Book Reference

'Stanford Online Encyclopaedia of Philosophy', ed/tr. Stanford University [plato.stanford.edu], p.9


A Reaction

This seems to be the major problem for empiricism, but I am not sure why inference to the best explanation should not be part of a sensible empirical approach. Thinking laws are just 'descriptions of regularities' illustrates the difficulty.