Theories of Rationalism and Empiricism

The Argument between rationalist and empiricism depends on the extent at which we are dependent on our senses as a way that we gain knowledge. Rationalists believe that reason is the only route to the truth and only our mind can access these ideas. Empiricists believe that only experience can reveal the truth. When our senses are taken out of the equations we must rely on our experience to rationalize the truths and ideas. The disagreement between the two basically comes down to how we look at the sources of our concepts and knowledge.

Rationalists form their opinions in several different ways. Intuition and deduction go hand in hand with this belief. If we think it in our minds then the obvious deduction is that it must be the truth. These ideas or innate thoughts that come from our mind are there long before we start thinking of them. When we think of innate thoughts we wonder where they come from. If we haven't thought of a particular idea before but yet we have an opinion or thought in reference to them, where did this come from. Some Philosophers view intuition to be infallible claiming that whatever comes from our mind or senses must be the truth. Rationalist philosophers use Mathematics and logic as the best example of knowledge. No matter what our experiences tell us, deductions from math can never change.

Descartes views on rationalism were simple to understand. Truth has to be certain and unshakable. If we have any doubt in our mind or if we can come up with any scenario in our mind no matter how bizarre then we are forced to say, we don't know. Another rationalist philosopher Leibniz, viewed mathematics as innate and explained that this knowledge cannot be gained through experience. Plato was also a rationalist who believed that mathematics and logic enable us to reach conclusions that are permanent and certain.

On the other side of rationalist are empiricists. Empiricists believe that only experience can reveal the truth and that there are no truths about the world in pure ideas. Empiricists believe that reason and math are tools for organizing our experiences. John Locke, British empiricists, viewed the human mind as a blank slate and said that only through experiences can we create knowledge. This contrasts rationalist's views that humans have innate ideas and that what is in the mind must have come from writings on the slate. Empiricist also state that rationalist views don't really tell us anything new, but empiricist knowledge shows us something that we did not know before. David Hume also sided with empiricists views and thought that everything in our minds comes from our sense experience. Humes' assertion was that with nothing in our minds to start with, we are in position to create, have intuitive thoughts and basically just receive sense impressions. Other empiricists include George Berkeley, Aristotle and john Stuart Mill.