Empirical knowledge of the world - functions and methods

Man, in contact with the world around him, can not use only scientific facts and an unfeeling logical judgment. Much more often he needs empirical knowledge for living contemplation and the work of the sense organs - sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.

What does empirical knowledge mean?

The whole process of cognition is divided into two parts: theoretical and empirical. The first is considered the highest, proceeding from the fact that it is based on problems and laws that are their solution. Judging of it as an ideal is debatable: the theory is good for already studied processes, the signs of which have long been considered and described by someone else. Empirical knowledge is a completely different form of knowledge. It is original, because the theory can not be created without analyzing one's own feelings from the object of investigation. It is also called sensory contemplation, which means:

1. Primary processing of knowledge about the object. The example is primitive: mankind would never know that fire is hot, if one day his flame was not burned by someone.
2. The starting point of the general cognitive process. During it a person activates all the senses. For example, when a new species is discovered, the scientist uses empirical knowledge and fixes observation for him and fixes all the changes in the behavior, weight, color of the individual.
3. Interaction of the individual with the outside world. Man is himself a mammal, and therefore in the process of sensory learning relies on instincts.

Empirical knowledge in philosophy

Each science has a unique vision of the need to use the senses in the process of studying the environment and society. Philosophy believes that the empirical level of cognition is a category that serves to strengthen ties in society. Developing observational abilities and imagination , a person shares his experience with others and develops a thinking contemplation - constructive perception, arising from a symbiosis of feelings and inner gaze (point of view).

Signs of empirical knowledge

The features characteristic of any process under study are called its features. In philosophy, they use a similar concept - signs that reveal the characteristics of the process that is happening. Features of empirical knowledge include:

• collection of facts;
• their primary generalization;
• a description of the observed data;
• the description of the information acquired during the experiment;
• systematization and classification of information.

Methods of empirical knowledge

It is impossible to understand the mechanism of the philosophical or sociological category without preliminary elaboration of the rules for carrying out the research. The empirical way of knowing needs such methods as:

1. Observation is an external study of an object that relies on sensory data.
2. Experiment - directed intervention in the process or its reproduction in the laboratory.
3. Measurement - giving the results of the experiment a statistical form.
4. Description - fixation of the presentation received from the senses.
5. Comparison is the analysis of two similar objects in order to reveal their similarity or differences.

Functions of empirical knowledge

The functions of any philosophical category mean goals that can be achieved by its application. They reveal the very need for the existence of a concept or phenomenon from the point of view of utility. The empirical way of knowing has the following functions:

1. Educational - develops intelligence and available skills.
2. Managerial - can affect the management of people by their behavior.
3. Estimating-orientational - empirical knowledge of the world contributes to the assessment of the reality of being and its place in it.
4. The goal is the acquisition of correct benchmarks.

Empirical knowledge - types

A sensible way of obtaining knowledge can belong to one of three varieties. All of them are interconnected with each other and without this unity an empirical method of knowledge of the world is impossible. These include:

1. Perception is the creation of a full-fledged image of an object, the synthesis of sensations from the contemplation of the totality of all aspects of the object. For example, an apple is perceived by man not as sour or red, but as an integral object.
2. Sensation is an empirical form of cognition, reflecting in the mind of a person the properties of individual aspects of an object and their effect on the senses. Each of the characteristics is felt in isolation from others - taste, smell, color, size, shape.
3. Presentation - a generalized visual image of the object, the impression of which was made in the past. Memory and imagination play a big role in this process: they restore memories of the subject in his absence.