Single Idea 15622

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

Full Idea

Empiricism operates without knowing that it contains a metaphysics and is engaged in it, and that it is using categories and their connections in a totally uncritical and unconscious manner.

Gist of Idea

Empiricism unknowingly contains and uses a metaphysic, which underlies its categories

Source

Georg W.F.Hegel (Logic (Encyclopedia I) [1817], §38 Rem)

Book Reference

Hegel,Georg W.F.: 'The Hegel Reader', ed/tr. Houlgate,Stephen [Blackwell 1998], p.151


A Reaction

I doubt whether this is true of modern empiricists, who have been challenged so often from within their own ranks on so many things. I'm not even sure that it is true of Locke and Hume, apart from the way in which all philosophers are unaware of things.