Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill
in or observation of some thing or some event gained through
involvement in or exposure to that thing or event.[1] The
history of the word experience aligns it closely with the
concept of experiment.
The concept of experience generally refers to know-how or
procedural knowledge, rather than propositional knowledge:
on-the-job training rather than book-learning. Philosophers dub
knowledge based on experience "empirical knowledge" or "a
posteriori knowledge".
Shrooms: a trip experience
The interrogation of experience has a long tradition in
continental philosophy. Experience plays an important role in
the philosophy of Søren Kierkegaard. The German term Erfahrung,
often translated into English as "experience", has a slightly
different implication, connoting the coherency of life's
experiences.
A person with considerable experience in a certain field can
gain a reputation as an expert.
Certain religious traditions (such as types of Buddhism, Surat
Shabd Yoga, mysticism and Pentecostalism) and educational
paradigms with, for example, the conditioning of military
recruit-training (also known as "boot camps"), stress the
experiential nature of human epistemology. This stands in
contrast to alternatives: traditions of dogma, logic or
reasoning. Participants in activities such as tourism, extreme
sports and recreational drug-use also tend to stress the
importance of experience.
