Rationalism

Core concepts

Distinctions

Schools of thought

Topics as well as views

Specialized domains of inquiry

Notable epistemologists

Related fields

In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological opinion that "regards reason as a chief address and test of knowledge" or "any concepts appealing to reason as a acknowledgment of cognition or justification". More formally, rationalism is defined as a methodology or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual as well as deductive".

In an old controversy, rationalism was opposed to empiricism, where the rationalists believed that reality has an intrinsically logical structure. Because of this, the rationalists argued thattruths symbolize and that the intellect can directly grasp these truths. That is to say, rationalists asserted thatrational principles equal in logic, mathematics, ethics, and metaphysics that are so fundamentally true that denying them causes one to fall into contradiction. The rationalists had such(a) a high confidence in reason that empirical proof and physical evidence were regarded as unnecessary to ascertaintruths – in other words, "there are significant ways in which our concepts and knowledge are gained independently of sense experience".

Different degrees of emphasis on this method or theory lead to a range of rationalist standpoints, from the moderate position "that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge" to the more extreme position that reason is "the unique path to knowledge". precondition a pre-modern apprehension of reason, rationalism is identical to philosophy, the Socratic life of inquiry, or the zetetic skeptical score believe interpretation of authority open to the underlying or essential clear believe of matters as theyto our sense of certainty. In recent decades, Leo Strauss sought to revive "Classical Political Rationalism" as a discipline that understands the task of reasoning, not as foundational, but as maieutic.

In the school of philosophy in its own right for the first time in history – exerted an immense and profound influence on innovative Western thought in general, with the birth of two influential rationalistic Cartesianism and Spinozism. 17th-century arch-rationalists such(a) as Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz offered the "Age of Reason" its name and place in history.

History

Although rationalism in its modern form post-dates antiquity, philosophers from this time laid down the foundations of rationalism.[] In particular, the understanding that we may be aware of knowledge usable only through the ownership of rational thought.[]

Pythagoras was one of the first Western philosophers to stress rationalist insight. He is often revered as a great mathematician, mystic and scientist, but he is best so-called for the Pythagorean theorem, which bears his name, and for discovering the mathematical relationship between the length of strings on lute and the pitches of the notes. Pythagoras "believed these harmonies reflected thenature of reality. He summed up the implied metaphysical rationalism in the words "All is number". this is the probable that he had caught the rationalist's vision, later seen by Galileo 1564–1642, of a world governed throughout by mathematically formulable laws". It has been said that he was the first man to so-called himself a philosopher, or lover of wisdom.

Plato held rational insight to a very high standard, as is seen in his workings such as Meno and The Republic. He taught on the Theory of Forms or the Theory of Ideas which asserts that the highest and near fundamental breed of reality is not the fabric world of conform known to us through sensation, but rather the abstract, non-material but substantial world of forms or ideas. For Plato, these forms were accessible only to reason and not to sense. In fact, this is the said that Plato admired reason, especially in < href="Geometry" title="Geometry">geometry, so highly that he had the phrase "Let no one ignorant of geometry enter" inscribed over the door to his academy.