Empiricism

Empiricism, in Philosophy, a general term for systems based on the doctrine that all knowledge is ultimately derived from experience (Gk. empeiria), without any innate element. The name is often used in medical science as a term of reproach almost synonymous with quack, though strictly speaking all medical and surgical science is empiric and is valuable just in so far as it is founded upon observation and experience. But the medical empiric (a "bone-setter" is a-good example) usually knows only a limited set of facts, but not the principles discovered by past experience.