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| 19590 | Empiricists are passive thinkers, given their philosophy by the external world and fate |
| Full Idea: An empiricist is one whose way of thinking is an effect of the external world and of fate - the passive thinker - to whom his philosophy is given. | |||
| From: Novalis (Teplitz Fragments [1798], 33) | |||
| A reaction: Novalis goes on to enthuse about 'magical idealism', so he rejects empiricism. This is an early attack on the Myth of the Given, found in Sellars and McDowell. |