Empiricism and Extraordinary (my thoughts)

Empiricism

This is the observational method where ‘wysiwyg’, ‘what you see is what you get’, is key, as in empirical evidence. Empiricism is often contrasted with Rationalism, whereby through logical deduction one arrives at knowledge. Both are about epistemology, as in what method lets one to achieve correct knowledge.

However, one objection everyone always throws in is ‘logic is a product of the brain’. The brain is the tool that logic is performed in; it’s a process, and as the brain is going through that process, the brain is experiencing the logic and therefore rationalised logic is empirical evidence. Thus, rationalism is a branch of empiricism, some could argue.

Though, one must consider the introductory paragraph to this section. Empiricism is mostly concerned with observation. Does the empirical evidence of logic happen through observation? No. Both are empirical, but differently so if following exclusive definitions. But if accepting the inclusive definition, then yes, they are related epistemological techniques.

When writing a piece that contrasts rationalism and empiricism, rationalism will most often be the one with the strongest evidence. This is unsurprising: the mode used is argumentation which is founded in logic, which is where rationalism stems from, meaning that argumentation and rationalism go hand-in-hand. It would be bizarre is rationalism didn’t come on top. However, this doesn’t prove rationalism to be the best source of knowledge in every situation, but rather this demonstrates that rationalism is the best source of knowledge for logical argumentation.

Extraordinary

When I want extra cake, I want more of the cake I already have.

So when I first read ‘extraordinary’ when I was young, I thought it meant ‘more ordinary/plain/stereotypical/average’. That is, what was referred to as ‘extraordinary’ was, in fact, even more normal, even more non-special, than regular, ordinary things. When a teacher in primary school labelled my work ‘extraordinary’ I was insulted that she essentially said, “That’ll do, I suppose.”

Going home, a family member explained ‘extraordinary’ means ‘more than ordinary’. I was happy with this compliment and many years later, I used this example in my AS English Language (a linguistics course) and it worked wonders in explaining theories of child language acquisition that took account of the environment of the child.