RATIONALISM vs.

EMPIRICISM
INTRODUCTION
- Empiricism: 1/a theory that all knowledge originates in experience; 2/ the
practice of relying on observation and experiment especially in the natural
sciences. Simple definition all knowledge obtained through senses not inherited
- Rationalism: 1/theory that reason in itself is a source of knowledge superior to
and independent of sense perceptions; 2/reliance on reason as the basis for
establishment of any beliefs (including religion). Simple definition all knowledge
obtained through reason
ROOTS OF DISPUTE
- The dispute between rationalism and empiricism takes place within
epistemology the branch of philosophy devoted to studying the nature, sources
and limits of knowledge. Epistemology addresses three primary issues:
1. What is the nature of propositional (theoretical) knowledge,
knowledge that a particular proposition (theory) about the world is true?
To know a proposition (theory), we must believe it and it must be true.
However, we need something more something to distinguishes knowledge from a
lucky guess. This additional element can be referred to as cause (rationale or
justification behind our action, belief, or feelings). So what is the nature of this
cause? This is a question that many philosophers have been trying to define.
2. How can we gain knowledge?
We can form true beliefs just by making lucky guesses. How to gain a
causable (justifiable) belief is less clear. Moreover, to know the world, we must
think about it, and it is unclear how we are able to gain the concepts we use in
dividing up the world actually corresponds to any actual, existential facts.
3. What are the limits of our knowledge?
Some aspects of the world may be within the limits of our thought but
beyond the limits of our knowledge; faced with competing descriptions about
them, we cannot know which one is true. Some aspects may even be beyond the

limits of our thought, so that we cannot form intelligible descriptions of them, let
alone know that a particular description is true.
The disagreement between rationalists and empiricists primarily concerns
the second question, regarding the sources of our concepts and knowledge. This
leads to disagreement over the nature of our cause (rationale) or the limits of our
thought and knowledge.
Empiricism
Senses are the basis of all our
knowledge

Uses before-and-after consequences

deduction (example: rock hitting
window)
Experimental science is the paradigm of
knowledge

Rationalism
Senses are only parts of our belief
system, which is innate knowledge- our
rational nature (reasoning), something
we are born with
Uses causation (cause-and effect)
deduction
Mathematics is the paradigm of
knowledge

Conclusion:
Empiricists claimed that sense experience is the ultimate starting point for
all our knowledge. The sense give us raw data about the world and by
accumulating this data through senses, we produce theories, perceptions which are
the basic threshold for our belief system.
Rationalists claimed that the ultimate starting point for all knowledge is not
the senses but reason. Without prior principles supplied by reason, we couldnt
organize and interpret our sense experience in any way. Rationalism signifies the
fact that our rational beliefs and the entirety of human knowledge derived from our
innate knowledge (concepts that we are just born having) that are somehow
generated and certified by reason, along with anything logically deductible from
these first principles. Rationalist philosophers have claimed that at the foundations
of our knowledge are propositions (theory) that are self-evident, or self-evidently
true. It has such strange property of being such that, on merely understanding what
it says, and without any further checking or special evidence of any kind, we can

just intellectually see that it is true. This is actually the foundation for which
mathematics, one of humans most important branch of science is built on.
(Example: transitive deduction).
Of course, both theories contain arguments that cannot be reasoned with
using either theories, but still they have helped humanity far more than what our
ancestors might have imagined and maybe one day, we might actually able to
figure out the nature of our existence and the world we are living in.