According to the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary definition -noun (u) (philosophy) the uses of experiment or experience as the basis for our ideas; the belief in this method- empiricism, of which John Locke, is an exponent.
Besides being a theory about the basis and origin of knowledge and content of the mind in general, Empiricism is also a method rather than a specific school of philosophy. It reappears in the history of philosophy as a definite epistemological doctrine- (we shall be looking into the concept of what epistemology means) at other time.
In the broad sense, Empiricism means the conviction of which philosophy in an attempt to systemize, explicate and understand human experience, must start from the facts of experience and eventually must return to that same experience for its final seal and approval.
The same is true that to say that philosophy starts from human experience, is undeniably true. And as a matter of fact, philosophy is nothing but a question of our experiences.
Because philosophy may lead us into a field so remote, from anything we may find in our immediate experience as in the " archetypes" of Plato or in the " things-as-such" of Kant.
But generally speaking, philosophy starts from experience but does not end with inexperience but in wisdom.
And as the saying has it, with the cause of time, philosophers often come to forget the original question from which they had to sort an answer. But as they become so immersed into the answer they got with time, they are bound to forget to enquire whether it supplies or fits the very fact of experience from which they had started.
The same is true that it is the tendency to speculate that brought philosophers a bad name as a dreamer and impractical men.
As it were, " Empiricism" is said to be a revolt against this tendency that turns resolutely against the acceptance of any philosophical hypothesis which is not supported by any fact of experience.
It must be observed that among the ancients who strive with the greatest achievement in the realm of philosophy, maybe ascribed to Indian and Greek, although, with different approaches and outlook of these two ancient cultures to philosophical problems.
While the Indian philosophy may be primarily subjective inexperience, it is said to take its birth in man's feeling of resentment at his fate.
On the part, the Ancient Greek philosophy, primarily we're interested in the world of external things that stand against the world of subjective experience through which we become aware of the flux of our experiences.
It must be emphasized, however, that another Indian school of philosophy tends to have its origin in the conflict which arises in man's experience as a result of pain or from a sense of conflict of duty.
It must be observed that Greek philosophy in the early phase is said to be dominated by a sense of curiosity about the world of nature as they seek to penetrate the secrets which lie behind its ever-changing face.
Therefore the Greek philosophy strives to act as a child of wonder which the world of objects and occurrences in the external world evokes in his breast.
The Greek philosophy tends to strive towards natural science that also tends to keep closest to the. scientific thought of which " Empiricism" is typical.