| 释义 |
empirical, a.|ɛmˈpɪrɪkəl|
Forms: 6–7 empericall, 7–8 empyrical, 7– empirical.
[f. prec. + -al1.]
1. Med.
a. Of a physician: That bases his methods of practice on the results of observation and experiment, not on scientific theory.
b. Of a remedy, a rule of treatment, etc.: That is adopted because found (or believed) to have been successful in practice, the reason of its efficacy being unknown. † Also as quasi-n. in pl. = ‘empirical remedies’.
1569J. Sa[nford] Agrippa's Van. Artes 140 b, Empericall, that is to saie, that consisteth in practise, of experimentes. 1612Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653), Medicine composed by a Chymicall, Methodicall, or Empericall Surgeon. 1656Ridgley Pract. Physick 26 Empiricalls are: Earth-worms provided divers wayes. 1685Evelyn Mem. (1857) II. 216 He had a laboratory, and knew of many empirical medicines. 1830Mackintosh Eth. Philos. Wks. 1846 I. 136 Sextus, a physician of the empirical, i.e. anti-theoretical school. 1869E. A. Parkes Pract. Hygiene (ed. 3) p. i, Empirical rules..obsevations of what seemed good or bad for health.
2. That practises physic or surgery without scientific knowledge; that is guilty of quackery. Also of medicines: That is of the nature of a quack nostrum. Cf. empiric B. 2.
a1680Butler Rem. (1759) II. 304 A Pedlar of Medicines..and Tinker empirical to the Body of Man. 1839James Louis XIV, IV. 45 Empirical drugs for the cure of various diseases. 1840H. Ainsworth Tower Lond. (1864) 66 When all the physicians of the royal household were dismissed, and the duke sent messengers for empirical aid.
3. In matters of art or practice: That is guided by mere experience, without scientific knowledge; also of methods, expedients, etc. Often in opprobrious sense transf. from 2: Ignorantly presumptuous, resembling, or characteristic of, a charlatan.
1751Johnson Rambler No. 183 ⁋13, I have avoided..that..empirical morality, which cures one vice by means of another. 1793Holcroft Lavater's Physiog. xxix. 136 We are all more or less empirical physiognomists. 1825McCulloch Pol. Econ. i. 42 Their arguments..had somewhat of an empirical aspect. 1861Goschen For. Exch. 84 The application of hasty and empirical measures. 1872Yeats Techn. Hist. Comm. 317 The great majority of accidents are..the results of empirical management.
4. Pertaining to, or derived from, experience. empirical ego = empirical self; empirical formula: in Mathematics, a formula arrived at inductively, and not verified by deductive proof; in Chemistry, a formula which merely enumerates the ultimate constituents of a compound in any convenient order, without implying any theory of the mode in which they are grouped; empirical law: see quot. 1846; empirical philosophy = empiricism 2 b (cf. also pragmatism 4); empirical psychologist, an exponent or adherent of empirical psychology; empirical psychology, the science of the mind developed by observation and experiment, rather than by deduction from general principles (opp. rational psychology); empirical self (see quot. 1890).
1649Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. Pref. ⁋46 The propositions of this philosophy being Empiricall and best found out by observation. 1798Month. Rev. XXV. 585 His empirical acquaintance with the works of taste is not comprehensive. 1829Nat. Philos. I. Mechanics iii. v. 18 (Usef. Know. Ser.) By an empirical formula is meant one that is conceived or invented without any analysis or demonstration. 1830Sir J. Herschel Stud. Nat. Phil. 71 If the knowledge be merely accumulated experience, the art is empirical. 1834M. Somerville Connex. Phys. Sc. viii. (1849) 70 An empirical law observed by Baron Bode, in the mean distances of the planets. 1836–7Sir W. Hamilton Lect. (1877) II. xxi. 26 Knowledge a posteriori is a synonym for knowledge empirical, or from experience. 1846Mill Logic iii. xvi. §i, An empirical law then, is an observed uniformity, presumed to be resolvable into simpler laws, but not yet resolved into them. 1850Daubeny Atom. Th. ix. (ed. 2) 297 SO3+ KO is the rational formula of the salt called sulphate of potass: S, O4, K the empirical. 1851H. L. Mansel Proleg. Logica ix. 275 Among modern philosophers, empirical psychology..is frequently classified as metaphysical. 1869Buckle Civilis. III. v. 385 The empirical corroboration of his doctrine by direct experiment. 1870S. H. Hodgson Theory of Practice I. ii. 252 Every feeling and every object in the whole empirical ego stands in some relation to it [sc. the emotion of moral sense]. 1890W. James Princ. Psychol. I. x. 291 The Empirical Self of each of us is all that he is tempted to call by the name of me. 1892― Coll. Ess. & Rev. (1920) 321 We certainly need something more radical than the old division into ‘rational’ and ‘empirical’ psychology. 1901― in Proc. Soc. Psychical Res. XLII. 21, I can therefore speak..as a mere empirical psychologist, of Myers's general evolutionary conception. 1902― Var. Relig. Exper. xiv. 374 According to the empirical philosophy..all ideals are matters of relation. 1949Mind LVIII. 124 The empirical psychologist is almost of necessity an epiphenomenalist in practice. 1963R. P. Wolff Kant's Theory Mental Activ. i. ii. 144 Only the empirical self is knowable. 1967S. J. Todes in R. P. Wolff Kant 164 The distinguishing feature of the empirical ego is that all empirical knowledge must be in terms of it. |