Our knowledge comes primarily from experience – what our senses tell us. But is experience really what it seems?

The experimental breakthroughs in 17th-century science of Kepler, Galileo and Newton informed the great British empiricist tradition, which accepts a ‘common-sense’ view of the world – and yet concludes that all we can ever know are ‘ideas’.

Dave Robinson, with the aid of Bill Mayblin’s brilliant illustrations, outlines the arguments of Locke, Berkeley, Hume, J.S. Mill, Bertrand Russell and the last British empiricist, A.J. Ayer. They also explore criticisms of empiricism in the work of Kant, Wittgenstein, Karl Popper and others, providing a unique overview of this compelling area of philosophy.

Dave Robinson has taught philosophy for many years and is the author of numerous Introducing titles. He is now a part-time lecturer in Critical Studies and lives in Devon. Bill Mayblin in a north London-based graphic designer.