Dave Robinson

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'. In Introducing Empiricism: A Graphic Guide, 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.

"Musician, poet, novelist and botanist, but above all, a philosopher who denied being one, Jean-Jacques Rousseau was the first to ask: “What is the value of civilization?” His answer shocked Enlightenment contemporaries and still challenges us today. Introducing Rousseau guides us through a turbulent life of lost innocence, persecution, and paranoia."