Combat Empiricism

Empiricism is a form of manifestation subjectivism. This was an erroneous tendency that the Communist Party of China opposed during the Yan'an Rectification Period.

Empiricism is characterized by starting from narrow experience, treating local experience as universal truth unconditionally, and it belittles the study of Marxist-Leninist theory. Empiricism admits that cognition begins with sensual experience, and from this point of view it is materialistic and has a one-sided truth; but in terms of epistemology as a whole, it is still wrong because it admits only sensual cognition and does not recognize that sensual cognition is to be developed into rational cognition, and that sensation only solves the problem of phenomena, while theory solves the problem of essence.

Mao Zedong criticized empiricists as vulgar "practical men" who "respect experience but despise theory, and thus cannot see the objective process as a whole, lack a clear direction, have no vision, and are complacent with a single achievement and a single view. Such people, if they guide the revolution, will lead it to the point where it hits a wall."

He said at the National Conference on Finance and Economics in the summer of 1953: "During the Yan'an Rectification, we concentrated on opposing dogmatism and, incidentally, empiricism, both of which are subjectivism. Without the integration of theory and practice, the revolution cannot be won. Marxism always emphasized the correct handling of the dialectical unity of theory and practice.”

On August 15, 1959, Mao Zedong issued "Suggestions on Reading Two Books", further making it clear: "In order to criticize empiricism from a theoretical point of view, we must read philosophy. Theoretically, we criticized dogmatism in the past, but not empiricism. Now, the main danger is empiricism.”