Articles for tag: Empiricism, Pascal, Rationalism

Karla News

From 17th Century Rationalism to the Enlightenment

Modern philosophy was born in the seventeenth century. Philosophers from this time period are remembered for their emphasis on rationalism. They did not rely on the senses at all, but instead regarded reason as the means by which one creates a brand new philosophy. Descartes and Pascal are two seventeenth century philosophers who are famous ...

Karla News

Outline of Descartes’ Meditations

Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy is a classic of western philosophy. Within its small number of pages, Rene Descartes attempts to provide a rational foundation for all human knowledge so that all knowledge might have the rigor and certainty of the mathematical sciences. While often Descartes’ individual arguments are quite complex in their own right, ...

Karla News

The Philosophy of Rationalism

Rationalism advocates that reason is the most important aspect to analyze anything. It says that whatever knowledge you acquire and possess, it needs to be based on reason alone. This is considered one of the most important philosophical methods, as it takes into consideration all human knowledge only based on reason and never appreciates anything ...

Karla News

Rationalism vs. Empiricism

In Philosophy, there are two main positions about the source of all knowledge. These positions are called rationalism and empiricism. Rationalists believe that all knowledge is “innate”, or is there when one is born, and that learning comes from intuition. On the other hand, empiricists believe that all knowledge comes from direct sense experience. In ...