Empiricism is the theory that all knowledge is derived from sense-experience. It was stimulated by the rise of experimental science. The idea is that a law of nature shall be clearly visible in an observation. The observation shall result in knowledge without the need to think. The motivation to skip any thinking comes from the opinion that considers thinking to be a subjective element which distracts from the objective matter with speculation and fantasy.
The belief that a sensory observation can deliver us a law or concept is quite familiar to us. We even have a language that is made to express laws and concepts in a way that is perceptible to our senses, with sound or text wich can be both visual and haptic. However, this only works, if the language is understood. That means our mind must be able to capture the expression and transform it back into a thought. That usually happens automatically, and we often create thoughts that in their appearance keep the structure and form which we also use in language. As a result, we can easily become unaware of this transformation. We can imprint laws and concepts, even our thoughts on paper, and pass them on in this form. But this only works with the appropriate preparation, with previous experience. Words in an unknown language will not enable us to create the intended thoughts. Words are just placeholders for concepts that we must already have, so we can replace the words correctly. And language comes with losses, we can neither say nor write everything we think. Language can also be limited, especially when talking about intangible objects we often lack words and even concepts. That can cause misunderstandings.
As empiricist we assume that the perceivable world is caused by objective, universal ideas that we call laws of nature. We want to find those laws. We say that we see a falling apple. But that is not the case. We see colors and shapes, changing over time. We see surfaces side by side in space and one after another in time. All this would be fully disconnected and unrelated if we did not have a memory of our sensory perception and if we would not connect it in our mind. We do not see a falling apple. We identify a falling apple (erkennen, see also Erkenntnis). If our thinking wasn’t involved, the change of sensory perception over time and space would have no meaning at all for us.
The concepts and laws first appear in our thinking. They are a part of reality, but cannot be found in sensory perception, because they are not included in it. They are added by our mind. We identify something and want to know more about it. That is why we ask questions. In our quest for answers a fallacy is possible. And this is where experimental science comes in handy. We can use it to check an idea that we had. The idea that we assume to be related to an observation can be translated into an experiment and then seen in action. We still need our mind and our thinking to get the idea in the first place, and to design an experiment as well. And if there are no surprises when we do the experiment, we can stick to out idea for the moment. It remains correct until proven wrong.
Our mind gives us access to the other side of reality, that a purely sensory being would never get to know about. Thinking is not only needed to chew or digest the sensorial nature of perception, but it captures what remains hidden to the senses. The product of our thoughts is exposing the concepts and laws, not creating them. Thinking is a formal activity. The process of identifying a concept and combining it with a phenomenon must emerge purely from the confrontation of our thinking with what is given to us, so it has to be preceded or accompanied by an observation. So knowledge is indeed what follows sense-experience, but is not included in it. Our ability to think and enrich sensory perception with knowledge (logic, intellect, reasoning, intuition) is trained when we are dealing with the physical world. When we have sharpened our thinking to an extent that we comprehend the physical world and can explain and manipulate the phenomena of the minerals, then we are ready for the next step. Then we can begin to understand living organisms and the ideas behind them with our thinking. We begin, as we did before, with observation.
The appearance of thinking is a plurality of thoughts, interwoven and organically connected. The plurality is combined into one harmonic union thanks to the relation of all thoughts with each other. All details are part of a big picture, which we can call the world of ideas. Every single thought wants to be consonance with the harmony of the world in our minds. If all the concepts that we have are in accordance with each other, then we feel in possession of the truth.
Our knowledge must not be subdued by outside norms, but must originate within us. Starting with my own observation and experience it must strive for the understanding (Erkenntnis) of the entire universe. A scientific doctrine must not be forced on people. The need or interest for knowledge must grow in each individual. Demanding acceptance or approval is not the job of science.
True knowledge gives us orientation and inner strength. Knowledge is always derived from thinking, never from sense-experience alone. Knowledge ist about relations, about context and meaning. Erkenntnis combines something sensorial and material with something mental and ideational. It combines sensory perception with a concept. Erkenntnis strives for truth and is the source of our knowledge.