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British empiricism
1689–1776· School or movement· Knowledge, logic & science
Well documentedSolid records, texts or physical evidence.
A tradition in British philosophy holding that all knowledge comes from experience through the senses, not from inborn ideas.
See it on the Philosophy map →The idea
Idea: the mind starts as a blank slate (tabula rasa); every idea comes from sensation or reflection on it. Reasoning: take any idea, say red or cause, and trace it back to experience. Locke (1689) set the program; Berkeley (1710) concluded there is no matter beyond perception; Hume (1739–48) showed experience cannot justify causation or induction. The rival camp, rationalists, included Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz. Main objection: experience alone seems unable to supply logic, mathematics or necessity.
Why it matters
It grounded the scientific habit of testing ideas against observation, and Hume's skepticism provoked Kant, who tried to combine it with rationalism.
Where it comes from
Locke's Essay (1689), Berkeley's Principles (1710), Hume's Treatise (1739–40) and Enquiry (1748) survive; the 'empiricist versus rationalist' framing is a later textbook label.
Still debated
Historians question the neat empiricist-versus-rationalist story: Locke relied heavily on reason, and Descartes ran experiments and dissected animals.
Inside this (4)
Connections (4)
▸Francis Bacon and the scientific method inspired British empiricismWell documented
The connection
Bacon argued that knowledge should be built up from careful observation and experiment, not deduced from ancient authorities, and warned of the mind's 'idols', habits that distort judgment. Boyle, the Royal Society and Locke took up his program, and British empiricism grew out of that experimental culture.
When and how
Bacon's New Organon, London, 1620; the Royal Society, founded in London in 1660, took him as its guide; Locke's Essay followed in 1689.
How we know
Thomas Sprat's History of the Royal Society (1667) praises Bacon as its inspiration, and Locke's Essay echoes Bacon's warnings about words and idols.
Debates and open questions
How directly Bacon shaped Locke's theory of ideas, as opposed to the general scientific mood, is debated.
▸René Descartes was opposed by British empiricismWell documented
The connection
Descartes held that some ideas, such as God, the self and mathematics, are innate, and that reason alone can reach certain knowledge. Locke opened his Essay by attacking innate ideas, arguing that the mind starts blank and every idea comes from experience. That clash defined the later 'rationalist versus empiricist' story.
When and how
Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, London, 1689, Book 1; Locke had read Descartes at Oxford in the 1660s.
How we know
According to his friend Lady Masham, Locke said Descartes' books first gave him a taste for philosophy; Book 1 of the Essay argues against innate ideas, though rarely naming Descartes.
Debates and open questions
Locke's target may have been English Platonists and schoolmen more than Descartes, and the two shared more assumptions than the textbook split suggests.
▸John Locke founded British empiricismWell documented
The connection
Locke's Essay launched the tradition: the mind begins as 'white paper', and every idea comes from experience, either sensation or reflection on our own mental operations. He sorted ideas into simple and complex and asked what we can know through them, setting the agenda Berkeley and Hume pursued.
When and how
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, London, 1689 (title page 1690), begun after a 1671 discussion among friends stalled on basic questions.
How we know
The Essay went through four editions in Locke's lifetime, and both Berkeley and Hume engage it directly and by name.
Debates and open questions
Bacon and Hobbes were empiricists before him, so calling Locke the 'founder' is a convention; he made it the first systematic theory.
▸British empiricism was synthesized with rationalism by Immanuel KantWell documented
The connection
Empiricists (Locke, Berkeley, Hume) said all knowledge comes from experience; rationalists (Descartes, Leibniz) said reason alone can grasp reality. Kant took both halves: 'all our knowledge begins with experience,' but 'it does not follow that it all arises out of experience'; the mind supplies the forms that organize it.
When and how
Königsberg, in the Critique of Pure Reason (1781, revised 1787); Kant was trained in the Leibniz-Wolff rationalism then dominant in German universities.
How we know
The Critique says outright that Leibniz 'intellectualized' appearances while Locke 'sensualized' concepts, and positions itself between them.
Debates and open questions
Whether 'empiricists versus rationalists' is a tidy story that later historians, partly following Kant himself, imposed on more varied thinkers.