Comparing the Approaches of Rationalism and Empiricism Towards a Theory of Knowledge
Rationalism
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Rene Descartes was the main rationalist. He said he believed he had to
doubt everything known to him to really understand knowledge.
Rationalism first began in Ancient Greece with two extreme
rationalists - Parmenides and Zeno. Rationalists believed in innate
ideas - ones that are present at birth, in the mind.
When Descartes started his thoughts, it was in the 17th century,
during the rise of science. Descartes decided to set up a new system
of knowledge to replace the knowledge of the church. This is where
Descartes introduced his 'Method of Doubt'. In his 'Method of Doubt',
he couldn't question every single object, so concentrated on three
main things:
§ The Senses
§ Physical Bodies
§ Maths and The Sciences
He said he could doubt all by the following explanations
§ The Senses - can be deceived - e.g. Optical Illusions, you think you
can see something when it's not there
§ Physical Bodies - dreaming - e.g. do you know you are awake now? Or
are you dreaming?
§ Maths and The Sciences - Descartes couldn't think of a valid reason,
so blamed an Evil Demon.
All Descartes knew, was his thoughts. He felt he could doubt
everything about everything, but all he thought that was real was his
thoughts. This is where he came up with his famous quote,
"I Think Therefore I Am"
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Spinoza was another rationalist. He was Jewish, and fled from
persecution from his home in Spain. His beliefs upset the Jewish faith
and his family disowned him. He was a ve...
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... from the mind and those who see it come from the
senses. Although they both have very different views, John Locke - one
of the early empiricists - had ideas very similar to those of
rationalists. We see that in his description of the three types of
knowledge, he states that the knowledge he says the knowledge in which
we rely on own senses, is actually less reliable than that of when we
use our thoughts - which is a very rationalist thought. Although,
further into the future of empiricism, these works of the earliest,
have now been seen as the most certain type rather than uncertain as
John Locke stated. Empiricists and rationalists, is it absolutely
certain, have very different views, but what we really want to know
is, which is true to us now? Where does our knowledge come from - our
thoughts, or through our senses?
dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” This quote by Carl Jung provides a brilliant overview of his concept
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.
...heory, reverse learning theory, and activation synthesis model, others focus on the mental exercise and simulations that dreams bring to us in the evolutionary theory of sleep. While many of the theories agree that dreams are a representation of ideas and thoughts from the unconscious mind, no single theory has been formed as the single primary authority on the matter of dreams despite more support for some of the theories. The fact of the matter is that despite the rampant research and discourse on the concept behind dreaming, these theories are merely speculations. But these speculations feed the curiosity on dreams and will hopefully lead to the expansion of dream analysis to not only better develop the current understanding of dreams, but also to help people around the world by possibly expanding dream analysis to become an early identifier of mental illness.
Epistemology can be defined as the study of knowledge. It asks questions like, “What is knowledge?”, “Why is knowledge important?”, and “How do people gain knowledge?”. Through a lot of determination in searching for answers to these questions, epistemologists discovered that there is a lot of disagreement on such questions. Therefore, epistemologists categorized these answers in groups based on beliefs that they have about where knowledge comes from and what the limit of knowledge is. The main groups epistemologists formed are: rationalism, empiricism, and constructivism. In my opinion, the Kantian constructivism has the strongest view.
of consciousness. Daydreaming is when, due to boredom or mental fatigue, a person enters a dream-like state while awake. While not necessarily ba...
Dreams (Chapter 3 Page 82-98) - A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep.
"Scientific Study of Dreams: Sample Chapter." The Scientific Study of Dreams: Sample Chapter. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.
‘Don’t give me any more facts! I need to make a decision right now!’ Although one can question knowledge endlessly, one cannot forever suspend judgment while researching and reflecting. What would it mean to act responsibly in a situation where one cannot possess certainty? How would one justify the decision?
Philosophy uses a term for empirical knowledge, “posteriori”, meaning that knowledge is “dependent upon sense experience”. (Markie, 2008, section 1.2) Yet, philosophical empiricism is defined in such an absolute way; which causes philosophical empiricism to be an inaccurate philosophical position from which to address all aspects of human life. Philosophical empiricism is defined as “the belief that all human knowledge arises from sense experience.” (Nash, 1999, page 254) Yet, medical empiricism is so far to the other extreme as to be insulting, while this empiricism is still said to be based on all sensory experience; only the scientific sensory experience is valued and counted. This form of empiricism excludes the experience of non-scientific persons. This is just one manner in which empiricism has “proved inadequate to explain many important human ideas”. (Nash, 1999, page 254) I believe that human truth is in a combination of empiricism and rationalism. Although, sensory data can inform us of the external world; yet, reason gives humanity access to equally important intangibles.
Rationalism and empiricism were two philosophical schools in the 17th and 18th centuries, that were expressing opposite views on some subjects, including knowledge. While the debate between the rationalist and empiricist schools did not have any relationship to the study of psychology at the time, it has contributed greatly to facilitating the possibility of establishing the discipline of Psychology. This essay will describe the empiricist and rationalist debate, and will relate this debate to the history of psychology.
Despite the fact that lucid dreamers are in their dreams, they are not altogether of it. This allows one to confront face-on otherwise fearful nightmares and anxieties, allowi...
1. It is believed that dreams are attempts of the soul to live the body. If this
thoughts from people’s deep sub conscious through the use of dreams, this is the act they call
Sleeping and Dreaming Despite the large amount of time we spend asleep, surprisingly little is actually known about sleeping and dreaming. Much has been imagined, however. Over history, sleep has been conceived as the space of the soul, as a state of absence akin to death, as a virtual or alternate reality, and more recently, as a form of (sub)consciousness in which memories are built and erased. The significance attributed to dreams has varied widely as well.
Because, even in the laboratory, there is no direct access to the dream experience, the authors are explicit about their dependence on the recall and report of the dream for our knowledge of it.