What's the difference between empiricism and observation?

Empiricism


Definition:

  • (n.) The method or practice of an empiric; pursuit of knowledge by observation and experiment.
  • (n.) Specifically, a practice of medicine founded on mere experience, without the aid of science or a knowledge of principles; ignorant and unscientific practice; charlatanry; quackery.
  • (n.) The philosophical theory which attributes the origin of all our knowledge to experience.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Whether it was Sénac or Wenckebach who first observed that quinine could change an irregular heart rhythm (atrial fibrillation) into a regular one (sinus rhythm), we are not far from their empiricism.
  • (2) The diversity of opinions among participants suggests a high level of empiricism in the development of ulcer healing drugs apart from those that inhibit acid secretion.
  • (3) Phlebology has made considerable efforts to free itself from empiricism in recent years.
  • (4) The authors urge that patients suffering from from facial paralysis should be referred to O.-R.-L. departments right from the start and not when all other methods of treatment have been tried, often with reprehensible empiricism, and found unsuccessful.
  • (5) At best, therefore, such reports are fraught with empiricism, illustrating only the experiences of individual clinicians.
  • (6) Advances made in recent years bring up the question of knowing whether or not logic is near to replacing empiricism.
  • (7) In Keynes' model, saving was a positive function of income, and, from both cross-section studies and casual empiricism, it was obvious that the savings ratio rose as income increased.
  • (8) A review of microcirculatory model useds, theoretical approaches to decompression, and order of magnitude calculations indicates that present empiricisms are inadequate for predicting such supersaturation phenomena.
  • (9) A review of antimicrobial drug trials shows that empiricism is still ahead of science and more studies are needed both to justify current practice and to make future changes logical.
  • (10) This empiricism probably arises from inadequate understanding of processes of mucosal injury and repair.
  • (11) This eliminates much of the empiricism of our preceding model, and minimizes the number of experimental runs now required in order to apply the model in practice.
  • (12) This form of evaluation provides specific information about fetal red blood cell antigen status and the degree of fetal anemia at an earlier gestational age than that validated by the Liley curves and eliminates empiricism from both the diagnosis and treatment of the isoimmunized pregnancy.
  • (13) The therapeutic possibilities for psoriasis are multiple; they are based on experience and on empiricism and are harmless for the patient, or on the known pharmacodynamic action which limit their use.
  • (14) The belief that propositions should be consistent with facts – empiricism – is far from universally held, let alone practised.
  • (15) The major perspectives in the scientific mode, namely, mechanism, empiricism, logical positivism, and logical empiricism, were analyzed along the three dimensions of theory development, sources of knowledge, and methodology.
  • (16) Based on philosophical concepts of logical empiricism which had been established in philosophy at the beginning of our century the operational psychiatric diagnosis was developed.
  • (17) An understanding of the basic principles can remove most of the empiricism from freeze-drying and lead to more efficient process cycles and to products of superior quality and stability.
  • (18) Freud himself had tried to reject classifications of psychoanalysis as a non- or pseudoscience by maintaining a sort of foundationist empiricism, which is philosophically problematic in several respects.
  • (19) In accordance with Freud's own conception of a theory of the unconscious, philosophy of science has discussed psychoanalysis mainly in terms of classical empiricism and foundationism.
  • (20) The authors examine and critique the methodological underpinnings and programmatic goals of DSM-III's underlying doctrine--strict empiricism.

Observation


Definition:

  • (n.) The act or the faculty of observing or taking notice; the act of seeing, or of fixing the mind upon, anything.
  • (n.) The result of an act, or of acts, of observing; view; reflection; conclusion; judgment.
  • (n.) Hence: An expression of an opinion or judgment upon what one has observed; a remark.
  • (n.) Performance of what is prescribed; adherence in practice; observance.
  • (n.) The act of recognizing and noting some fact or occurrence in nature, as an aurora, a corona, or the structure of an animal.
  • (n.) Specifically, the act of measuring, with suitable instruments, some magnitude, as the time of an occultation, with a clock; the right ascension of a star, with a transit instrument and clock; the sun's altitude, or the distance of the moon from a star, with a sextant; the temperature, with a thermometer, etc.
  • (n.) The information so acquired.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The patterns observed were: clusters of granules related to the cell membrane; positive staining localized to portions of the cell membrane, and, less commonly, the whole cell circumference.
  • (2) However, this deficit was observed only when the sample-place preceded but not when it followed the interpolated visits (second experiment).
  • (3) In conclusion, in S-rats a glucose-stimulated insulin release is accompanied by an increase in IBF, but this is not observed in P-rats.
  • (4) The combined immediate and delayed responses to fleas in the dog are as observed by other investigators in man and guinea pigs.
  • (5) However, when cross-linked to anti-CD4 or anti-CD8 antibodies a markedly enhanced proliferation of the corresponding subpopulation is observed.
  • (6) Using monoclonal antibodies directed against the plasma membrane of Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cells, we demonstrated previously that a glycoprotein with an Mr = 23,000 (gp23) had a non-polarized cell surface distribution and was observed on both the apical and basolateral membranes (Ojakian, G. K., Romain, R. E., and Herz, R. E. (1987) Am.
  • (7) Stimulation is also observed with mixtures of APC expressing DPw3 and APC expressing A1, and likewise, DPw3+ APC become stimulatory when preincubated with supernatants from A1-positive cells.
  • (8) For this reason, these observations should not be disregarded.
  • (9) No differences between the two substances were observed with respect to side effects and general tolerability.
  • (10) The testing of other models and their failure to describe the kinetic observations are discussed.
  • (11) The extrusion of granules into the intercellular space via exocytosis is frequently observed.
  • (12) The time of observation varied between 2 and 17 years.
  • (13) Insensitive variants die more slowly than wild type cells, with 10-20% cell death observed within 24 h after addition of dexamethasone.
  • (14) The subcellular distribution of sialyltransferase and its product of action, sialic acid, was investigated in the undifferentiated cells of the rat intestinal crypts and compared with the pattern observed in the differentiated cells present in the surface epithelium.
  • (15) No reaction product was observed in the lamellar areas.
  • (16) Cyanoacrylate and PDS coatings were not detectable after 6 weeks while PHBA and PLLA coatings were still observed after 48 weeks.
  • (17) A total of 13 ascertainments of folate sensitive autosomal fragile sites is observed, of which 10q23 fragility appears to be the most frequent.
  • (18) This new observation offers good possibilities to study the metabolism of tryptophan at the cellular level.
  • (19) These membrane perturbation effects not observed with bleomycin-iron in the presence of a hydroxyl radical scavenger, dimethyl thiourea, or a chelating agent, desferrioxamine, were correlated with the ability of the complex to generate highly reactive oxygen species.
  • (20) The fluctuations in [Ca2+]i measured with fura-2 were synchronized among the population of cells observed and were sensitive to extracellular Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]o).