Publisher's Synopsis
Primarily our knowledge comes from experience-that is what our senses say to us. The experimental breakthroughs in 17th-century science of Kepler, Galileo and Newton informed the great British empiricist tradition, which accepts a 'common-sense' view of the world - and yet concludes that all we can ever know are 'ideas'.
In this book, the author - with the aid of brilliant illustrator - outlines the arguments of Locke, Berkeley, Hume, J.S. Mill, Bertrand Russell and the last British empiricist, A.J. Ayer. They also explore criticisms of empiricism in the work of Kant, Wittgenstein, Karl Popper and others, providing a unique overview of this compelling area of philosophy.
