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Empiricism vs rationalism essay
Empiricism vs rationalism essay
Empiricism vs rationalism essay
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There are two main schools of thought, or methods, in regards to the subject of epistemology: rationalism and empiricism. These two, very different, schools of thought attempt to answer the philosophical question of how knowledge is acquired. While rationalists believe that this process occurs solely in our minds, empiricists argue that it is, instead, through sensory experience. After reading and understanding each argument it is clear that empiricism is the most relative explanatory position in epistemology.
To begin with the question of rationalism versus empiricism, it is important to understand, first, what it is that rationalists argue. This school of thought infers that all knowledge comes from within, an innate source that arrives with us at birth. Rationalists "suggest that only the truths we arrive at through our minds alone can count as knowledge".(White & Rauhut, pg.64) They argue that the conclusions that we arrive at through our senses are not adequate enough to count as legitimate knowledge. Instead, this school of thought maintains that because the world that we experience through our sense is in a state of constant change it can, therefore, not be relied upon in deriving distinct and reliable truths, also known as absolute truths.
Rene Descartes, a seventeenth-century mathematician, was one of the most influential philosophers in rationalism. Descartes, like all rationalists, rely on the absolute truths found only in mathematics and logic, and place ultimate value in analytic statements. "An analytic statement attributes a property to something, and that property is already implicit in the definition of that object or concept". (White & Rauhut, pg.72) Descartes introduced the idea of "radical doubt", as we...
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...lank state", provide us with a logical explanatory argument against rationalism.
To ultimately understand why empiricism provides a much better understanding of how knowledge is acquired it is important to understand what knowledge, itself, truly is. As defined in the the dictionary it is: the fact or condition of knowing something with familiarity gained through experience or association. (Merriam-Webster) Knowledge is not simply innate, but instead, acquired. Therefore, empiricism is the only school of thought that provides a sound in model in regards to the conceptual question of epistemology.
Bibliographic Citation
White, T. I., & Rauhut, N. C. (n.d.). Basic Issues Philosophy (pp. 64-75). N.p.: Pearson Custom Publishing.
knowledge. 2011. In Merriam-Webster.com.
Retrieved November 28, 2011, from
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/knowledge
Descartes is a prime example of a rationalist. Descartes begins his Meditations on First Philosophy by doubting his senses in the first meditation. “From time to time I [Descartes] have found that the senses deceive, and it is prudent never to trust completely those who have deceived us even once”(Descartes: 12). In the second meditation, Descartes begins to rebuild the world he broke down in the first meditation by establishing cogito ergo sum with the aid of natural light. It is with this intuition that the cogito is established, from the cogito, intellect, from the intellect, knowledge; thus knowledge has been defined in this world that Descartes is constructing from scratch. Descartes uses the fact that he is a thinking thing to establish the existence of other things in the world with the cosmological and ontological arguments, as well as a meditation on truth and falsity. “So now I seem to be able to lay it down as a general rule that whatever I perceive very clearly and distinctly is true” (Descartes: 24). Descartes only utilizes his perceptions to establish ideas of the things t...
A first influence was John Locke’s idea of Empiricism, which was the idea that all knowledge was gained by experiences, exclusively through the senses. A second vital influence was Transcendentalism, which was a reaction to Empiricism. While John Locke believed that reality or truth was constituted by the material world and by the senses, Transcendentalists believed that reality and truth exist within the spiritual or ideal world (Kerry Vermillion & Quinn McCumber).
In his work, Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes narrates the search for certainty in order to recreate all knowledge. He begins with “radical doubt.” He asks a simple question “Is there any one thing of which we can be absolutely certain?” that provides the main question of his analysis. Proceeding forward, he states that the ground of his foundation is the self – evident knowledge of the “thinking thing,” which he himself is.
Rationalism and empiricism have always been on opposite sides of the philosophic spectrum, Rene Descartes and David Hume are the best representative of each school of thought. Descartes’ rationalism posits that deduction, reason and thus innate ideas are the only way to get to true knowledge. Empiricism on the other hand, posits that by induction, and sense perception, we may find that there are in fact no innate ideas, but that truths must be carefully observed to be true.
The epistemological concept questions “how do I know?” The epistemological dimension is how we view the assumptions of knowledge to decide what to believe (Marcia, 2008, p2). The way in which information is delivered affects how it perceived by those who receive the information. Intrapersonal dimension is how we chose and adopt the values and beliefs that we decide to live by (Marcia, 2008, p8). For example, as a student in the first phase of self-authorship, I seek my values and beliefs according to seeking acceptance from those around me, while others who may be further down the process chose their values and beliefs according to who they are. Interpersonal dimensions is the connection between yourself and with others (Marcia, 2008, p9). It is the understanding of others views and developing a mature and respectful way to interact with everyone. “Complex epistemological, intrapersonal, and interpersonal development is necessary for adults to build complex belief systems, to form a coherent sense of identity, and to develop authentic, mature relations with diverse others (Baxter Magolda, 2001).” Within this course, I believe that we have learned a bit of all of three dimensions. Reading the
Although philosophy rarely alters its direction and mood with sudden swings, there are times when its new concerns and emphases clearly separate it from its immediate past. Such was the case with seventeenth-century Continental rationalism, whose founder was Rene Descartes and whose new program initiated what is called modern philosophy. In a sense, much of what the Continental rationalists set out to do had already been attempted by the medieval philosophers and by Bacon and Hobbes. But Descartes and Leibniz fashioned a new ideal for philosophy. Influenced by the progress and success of science and mathematics, their new program was an attempt to provide philosophy with the exactness of mathematics. They set out to formulate clear and rational principles that could be organized into a system of truths from which accurate information about the world could be deduced. Their emphasis was upon the rational ability of the human mind, which they now considered the source of truth both about man and about the world. Even though they did not reject the claims of religion, they did consider philosophical reasoning something different than supernatural revelation. They saw little value in feeling and enthusiasm as means for discovering truth, but they did believe that the mind of an individual is structured in such a way that simply by operating according to the appropriate method it can discover the nature of the universe. The rationalists assumed that what they could think clearly with their minds did in fact exist in the world outside their minds. Descartes and Leibniz even argued that certain ideas are innate in the human mind, that, given the proper occasion, experience would cause...
Rationality from the Latin ‘rationari’ meaning to ‘think’ or ‘calculate’ is a significant concept in Western philosophy born out of the Enlightenment. During the 17th and 18th centuries many philosophers began to emphasise the use of reason as the best method of learning objective truth. Pioneers in this field include Descartes and Locke.
Rationalism is based on the assumption that all human beings are innately rational. French and German rationalist philosophers, such as Decartes, Spinoza, Leibniz and Kant believed that basic metaphysical questions can be answered by reason alone. In his work Discourse on the Method, Decartes attempted to arrive at a set of principles that are fundamental, and in this way to arrive at true knowledge; to do that he methodologically rejected everything that he can doubt. Decartes summarised his conclusion in saying “I think therefore I am” (Decartes, 1637); he concluded that only thought exists, and because thought could not be separated from him, he also concluded that he exists. This conclusion that only the existence of thought cannot be doubted led to the view that reason and thought are the nature of the soul, and that humans are basically rational, is the foundation for rationalist thought. According to rationalist philosophers, reason is what separates hum...
There is a distinct difference between rationalism and empiricism. In fact, they are very plainly the direct opposite of each other. Rationalism is the belief in innate ideas, reason, and deduction. Empiricism is the belief in sense perception, induction, and that there are no innate ideas.
“In the eighteenth century philosophers extended the use of reason from the study of nature to human society” (McKay, 502). “The Enlightenment created concepts of human rights, equality, progress, universalism, and tolerance that still guide western societies today” (McKay, 502). Francis Bacon was the greatest advocator of the new experimental method. Bacon argued that new knowledge had to be found through observation and experience. He gave the empirical method its formal status and turned it “into the general theory of inductive reasoning known as empiricism” (McKay, 511). Empiricism was defined as “a theory of inductive reasoning that calls for acquiring evidence through observation and experimentation rather than deductive reason and speculation” (McKay, 511). Bacon’s work led into the creation of experimental philosophy in England after he had died. In 1660, Bacon’s followers put together the Royal Society where they met weekly to experiment and talk about recent discoveries of European scholars. Bacon believed there were only two ways of discovering the truth of anything and this belief backs up his idea of empiricism. He said “natural philosophy is, after the word of God, at once the surest medicine against superstition and the most approved nourishment for faith” (Bacon, 124-126) Another important philosopher after the time of Bacon
Epistemology, also known as theory of knowledge is the part of philosophy that discusses the nature and scope of knowledge. Some questions that study the nature of knowledge could be, Have you ever thought about how we know things? What does it mean for someone to know something? How much can we possibly know? How do you know that 2 + 2 = 4, or that the square root of 144 is 12? Do we know something from reason or from di...
Empiricism (en- peiran; to try something for yourself): The doctrine that all knowledge must come through the senses; there are no innate ideas born within us that only require to be remembered (ie, Plato). All knowledge is reducible to sensation, that is, our concepts are only sense images. In short, there is no knowledge other than that obtained by sense observation.
Epistemology is the branch of philosophy concerned with the theory of knowledge. Epistemology studies the nature of knowledge, justification, and the rationality of belief. Much of the debate in epistemology centers on four areas: the philosophical analysis of the nature of knowledge and how it relates to such concepts as truth, belief, and justification, various problems of skepticism, the sources and scope of knowledge and justified belief, and the criteria for knowledge and justification. Epistemology addresses such questions as "What makes justified beliefs justified?", "What does it mean to say that we know something?" and fundamentally "How do we know that we know?"
Epistemology helped me investigate the procedure I went through for crafting the essays. I referred to books, online articles, journal and other publications to understand and justify the concepts and information. It helped me distinguish between what is false, what is true across diverse contexts, and to decide the boundaries of knowledge based on how that knowledge is acquired. I also evaluated the truthfulness of my beliefs and personal opinion. I am actuated by understanding the sources of knowledge and also the quality of the resulting knowledge – knowing its dimensions and limitations.
They accept sense experience is relative and evolving. These philosophers guarantee that you require motivation to deal with what is appearance from reality and they deny that sense experience is the main wellspring of information about reality. Rationalistic scholars accept that thoughts like the laws of rationale, the idea of equity and the thought of God are as of now contained profound inside of the psyche and just should be conveyed to the level of our mindfulness. With this way of thinking we see weaknesses and strengths of Rationalism. The weakness is if we rely only on a reason and ignore sense experience we will start questioning everything ‘is it truly real or just illusion?’ it would cause side effect in our existence. It will effect negatively our mind and the way our thinking. The strength side in my opinion that it helps to distinguish past tangible experience from coherent