A person who finds knowledge empirically is called an empiricism. Sense experience is the basis for empiricism. Vision, hearing, smelling, touching, and tasting are the five senses which the empiricists relies on to experience and know the world.

The most extreme empiricists hold that we have no knowledge other than that derived from sense experience. Those hard-core empiricists believe we cannot know anything is true unless we can use our senses to verify our knowledge. The most extreme empiricists insist that the newborn child has no knowledge. Since the child is born with no experience, the child's mind is a "blank tablet." Only after having experienced with the senses does the child have knowledge.

Scientists are the most obvious type of empiricists. Scientists use not only sensory data and logic to discover knowledge, they may rely on instruments such as microscopes and telescopes for information. Such instruments are extensions of the senses. Of course, scientists must consider that their observations are not always accurate. Senses and their extensions do not always convey reliable information. In order to check the information gained by using the senses and logic, all empirical information must be tested.

Scientists cannot rely on their senses for everything they know. Since each scientist cannot perform every experiment that has ever been attempted, even scientists must accept a great deal of information on authority. Scientists feel comfortable with this arrangement because they may always empirically verify other scientist's findings.

Although the scientific method is based on empirical ways of finding knowledge, many scientists have made intuitive discoveries. When Archimedes discovered the principle of the buoyancy of objects in water, he ran down the street shouting "Eureka." (I found it.) This insight didn't originate in Archimedes' observations, but it could later be tested and confirmed empirically.

One of the most common arguments against relying solely on empirical knowledge is that it does not give complete answers to many of our difficult questions. Empiricists only answer questions which can be studied with the senses. For example, they cannot completely answer questions about the existence of God (though some do try) while they are operating in a purely empirical mode.