- Is the process of reasoning in which a conclusion is reached.
- Being able to conclude using particular instances using principles.
- Used to prove the existence of God.
Reason
- Empiricists believe that all ideas come from sense experience and that all ideas are either simple or complex.
- Simple ideas: ideas based only on perception.
- Complex: Simple ideas combined together.
- Whatever we learn, we learn through perception.
- Rationalists believe that reason is the main source of knowledge.
- Rationalist tend to believe that the five senses give you an opinion on something but they don't explain why something is the way it is.
Innate Ideas
- Rationalists claim that when we are born we already have some sort of ideas that we draw upon in order to understand the world, this are called innate ideas.
Examples
- Mathematical truths (2 + 2 = 4),
- Truths about God (that He exists, is good, all powerful)
- Plato describes innate ideas with his theory of forms , the place where everyone goes to obtain knowledge before returning to the world.
- Empiricists reject the idea of innate ideas because if a baby knows everything already, why can't it show it.
- Experience is of primary importance in giving us knowledge of the world.
- Idea that very few things can be proven.
- States that we can only be sure of the existence of ourselves. Everything else is a projection of our minds.
- "Rationalism - Innate Ideas & A Priori." Rationalism - Innate Ideas & A Priori. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://www.philosophyonline.co.uk/oldsite/tok/rationalism6
- "Theory of Knowledge." Theory of Knowledge Empiricism Comments. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://www.theoryofknowledge.info/sources-of-knowledge/empiricism/>.
- Markie, Peter. "Rationalism vs. Empiricism." Stanford University. Stanford University, 19 Aug. 2004. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationalism-empiricism/>.
- "Empiricism versus Rationalism." Empiricism versus Rationalism. Web. 19 Nov. 2014. <http://www.mesacc.edu/~davpy35701/text/empm-v-ratm.html>.
Rationalism
- Rationalism is the theory that the exercise of reason, rather than experience provides the primary basis for knowledge.
- Theory in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but deductive.
- Rationalism is Apriori which is using logic and reason to come up with a conclusion before experience.
Introduction
- Rationalism and empiricism are the two main ideas of Epistemology which is the branch of philosophy that studies the limits of knowledge.
- There are three defining questions of epistemology:
- What is the nature of propositional knowledge?
- How can we gain knowledge?
- What are the limits of our knowledge?
- The difference between rationalism and empiricism has to do with the second question, how can we gain knowledge.
Rationalism and Empiricism
By: Maria Jose Miranda, Javier Ignacio Robalino & Nicolas Cardenas