empiricism

Definition

Belief that all knowledge of matters of fact—as distinct from knowledge of logical relations among assumptions or concepts—is based on (or comes from) observation and experience. Empiricism relies on what piecemeal information is at hand and follows self-correcting experimentation in pursuit of greater knowledge. In general, an empiricist is described as one who looks first and thinks afterwards, as opposed to a rationalist who thinks first and looks afterwards. In management, empiricism is more applicable where a pressing need to do something precludes the possibility of a detailed analysis and full understanding of the situation. Most inventions emerge from empiric (observational) thinking, whereas most discoveries result from analytic or rationalistic thinking.