Chapter 1 traced the rise of empiricism as an alternative to the rationalism of classical philosophy.

Chapter 2 recounted the transformation of empiri­cism from a natural philosophy to an experimental methodology. Chapter 3 follows the career of empiricism as an epistemology, a psychology, and a theory of meaning. Looking ahead, the chapters of Part II trace how the rad­ical empiricists reclaimed empiricism for ontology, while Part III unfolds a comparison between European empiricisms and traditional Chinese thought and practice.