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Empiricism MeSH Descriptor Data 2025


MeSH Heading
Empiricism
Tree Number(s)
K01.752.667.400
Unique ID
D019348
RDF Unique Identifier
http://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D019348
Scope Note
One of the principal schools of medical philosophy in ancient Greece and Rome. It developed in Alexandria between 270 and 220 B.C., the only one to have any success in reviving the essentials of the Hippocratic concept. The Empiricists declared that the search for ultimate causes of phenomena was vain, but they were active in endeavoring to discover immediate causes. The tripod of the Empirics was their own chance observations (experience), learning obtained from contemporaries and predecessors (experience of others), and, in the case of new diseases, the formation of conclusions from other diseases which they resembled (analogy). Empiricism enjoyed sporadic continuing popularity in later centuries up to the nineteenth. (From Castiglioni, A History of Medicine, 2d ed, p186; Dr. James H. Cassedy, NLM History of Medicine Division)
Public MeSH Note
97
History Note
97
Date Established
1997/01/01
Date of Entry
1996/06/10
Revision Date
1999/11/08

Allowable Qualifiers
Empiricism Preferred
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