Compare And Contrast Empiricism And Rationalism

Throughout history, Philosophers have been puzzled by so many questions regarding the world we live in. Questions such as is there something rather than nothing and do we have free will, have puzzled philosophers. However, the biggest question that puzzled philosophers was regarding humans and knowledge. Two groups of philosophers tried to answer the questions; however, they both have different view points about the topic. The first group was the rationalist and the second group was the empiricists. Both the rationalist and the empiricists try to answer the questions what is real, reality, truth and knowledge.

The empiricists were a group of individuals who believed humans were born with a clean slate and gained knowledge using there five senses; sight, taste, hearing, touch and smell. Through our five sense we are able to understand reality and gain a better understanding of the world. The most notable of the of the empiricists was Berkeley, Aristotle, Kant and the founder of empiricism John Locke. On the other hand, were the rationalist and they believed humans are born with knowledge and have to use reason to discover the answers within them. The opposite of empiricist, rationalist believe that our senses are useless because the answers are in us. The most notable of the rationalist was Plato,

who was the student of Socrates a person who asked a lot of questions with no definite answer.
The first question both empiricists and rationalist debated about is what is real? Metaphysics a branch in philosophy which tries to answer the question, what is real by looking at the physical world. The rationalist believed that every person had the real image in their head and everything in the universe was merely just a copy. For example, Plato would say that the real cup is in our head and the cup everyone see is just a copy. The empiricists would say in order for something to be real one must be able to use their sense. For example, the cup that we see on the table and could touch is the real thing.
The second question was what is reality, which is different than what is real? For Plato there were two worlds of reality, which are ideas and their material expression. The world of ideas is more superior than the material expression because it is ever lasting and non changing. The material world is merely a shadow of the world of ideas, which we perceive through our five senses. For example, the idea of a table is superior than that of an actual table because a table over time is constantly changing and one day it will be a pile of wood. However, the idea of a table in our head would never deteriorate and is the real table. However, Aristotle would disagree with Plato and say “reality is the natural physical world.” For Aristotle, reality is consider as the earth, galaxy, and everything else we might experience using our senses.
The final question philosopher are trying to figure out is what is true and what is knowledge? Plato said, “Truth is knowledge of the Eidos gained through rational intuition,” which means the truth and knowledge is within us. In order to know if something is true is to think about it and if we believe it is true than it must be true. However, Aristotle said, “Truth is knowledge of the natural / physical world gained through empirical investigation.” For Aristotle, humans gain knowledge and understanding of the truth through research and discoveries. So most chemist, mathematicians and physicians would be consider empiricist, since they search for the truth using empirical evidence.
Both the empiricist and rationalist try to answer all the questions regarding the world; however, sometimes they might be unable to answer the question or disagree with each others answer.

Some of the questions they tried to answer but disagreed with is what is real, reality, truth and knowledge? The empiricist believed what is real and reality is what we are able to perceive through our sense and the physical world, while the rationalist believed reality and the real thing is in our head. The empiricist also believed that the truth is gained through empirical investigation, which the rationalist believed that the truth are within us and we only need to discover

it.