EMPIRICISM

1. INTRODUCTION.
   Empiricism as a solution to the problem of knowledge makes two basic assumptions concerning knowledge:
   1. The source of knowledge is sense experience. There are no innate ideas. The mind is a blank tablet (tabla rasa) at birth; any ideas that the mind has is acquired through sense experience subsequent to birth.
   2. The criterion of knowledge is sense experience. The senses are the only criterion by which ideas can be tested to determine whether our ideas are true or not. Empiricism would define truth as the correspondence of our ideas with fact or objective reality.
   To determine whether our ideas correspond with reality there has developed in the history of philosophy a number of theories of perception. These theories of perception describe how our ideas or perceptions correspond with reality.

2. THEORIES OF PERCEPTION.
   1. NAIVE REALISM OR OBJECTIVISM.
   2. COMMON SENSE REALISM.
   3. EPISTEMIC DUALISTIC REALISM.
   4. EPISTEMIC IDEALISM OR SUBJECTIVISM.
   5. SKEPTICISM.
   6. CRITICAL IDEALISM.