The philosophical position that all knowledge derives from sensory experience is empiricism. Empiricists hold that observation and experience are the foundations of knowledge, rather than innate ideas or reasoning detached from the senses.
The tradition is strongly associated with early modern thinkers such as Francis Bacon, John Locke, George Berkeley, and David Hume. Locke famously described the mind as a tabula rasa, or “blank slate,” arguing that ideas develop through sensation and reflection on experience. Hume later examined how repeated experiences lead people to form beliefs about cause and effect.
Empiricism is commonly contrasted with rationalism, which gives reason an important independent role in producing knowledge. It is also closely related to the scientific method, where hypotheses are tested against observations and experiments. Empiricism does not mean that scientists simply collect raw sensations without interpretation; measurements, instruments, mathematics, and reasoning all matter. Its central claim is that reliable knowledge must ultimately be connected to evidence from experience and remains open to revision when better evidence appears.