Rationalism and Empiricism: Core Principles

Continental Rationalism

Continental Rationalism refers to a philosophical movement developed in continental Europe. It is opposed to the Empiricist school, which developed in the British Isles with thinkers like Locke, Berkeley, and Hume.

Main Rationalist thinkers include Blaise Pascal, Baruch Spinoza, and Nicolas Malebranche.

Difficulties of Rationalism

Rationalism is a system that emphasizes reason. However, a general definition leads to the consideration of various types of rationalist philosophers, including those who deny the supernatural and do not accept revelation or mysteries.

Key Elements of Rationalism

• The importance of reason as the source of knowledge, as opposed to the senses. Senses provide information that must be interpreted by reason, making reason the philosophical justification of knowledge.
• The existence of innate ideas or truths. These are activated by experience and are considered true without needing sensory input. Reason is a characteristic of human beings, a universal feature present in all.
• Reason opposes the criterion of authority. Reason is valid and clear; it detects errors and falsehoods, unlike the imposition of beliefs by tradition.
• Mathematical knowledge is the model. It represents clarity, certainty, and definitive truth, eliminating any subjective factor. Reason is the only instrument for understanding reality, eliminating the fear of the unknown.

Basic Features: affirming reason, accepting the existence of innate ideas, and maintaining that reason is the unique tool for understanding reality.

Empiricism

Empiricism is a modern philosophical system that asserts that the only knowledge considered valid is that which comes from experience.

Therefore, truth is only that which is perceptible by the senses.

Experience: Direct interaction with things is a usual definition, but its meaning is more complex. It is everything received from things in the world and objects, making it possible to know the outside world and its existence. It is also immediate; data is presented immediately, whether or not the external world is secondary.

Basic Principles of Empiricism

• Experience is the foundation of knowledge. We know what is given to us by experience, through our senses. There is no knowledge without experience.
• Autonomy of experience: It is independent of any other instance and dictates the limits of our knowledge.
• The subject is secondary: In contrast to rationalism, the self is relegated. Experience provides the content, and then the subject is involved.
• There are no intermediaries. Experience directly affects the senses, which are intermediaries between the object and the knowing subject.
• Experience is limited: There must be external objects; the outside world is a subject of belief, not knowledge.
• Empiricism has an epistemological character and a basic concern to investigate the validity of knowledge.

Epistemology

Epistemology is the study of the justification and validity of scientific knowledge. It comes from the Greek word "episteme."

Differences with Rationalism

For empiricism, there are no innate ideas. In rationalism, the innate idea of God guarantees the existence of the world. Empiricism maintains that ideas come from experience. The origin of knowledge is experience, not reason, as in rationalism. Thought decides on truth or certainty for the rationalist; for the empiricist, experience determines true knowledge. This is the law of truth.

Descartes' Method

Descartes believed that philosophy was not built on solid principles and was subject to dispute. He sought a safe method to attain knowledge, based on references to the method of resolution.

With good reason, one can distinguish truth from falsehood.

To reach the truth of things, a method is needed.

The Road to the Method

A series of dreams inspired Descartes to conceive his method.

• Initial Training: He started by studying serious knowledge (mathematics, geology, philosophy), but he neglected it due to his concerns.
• He dedicated himself to studying "the book of the world" after traveling in Europe and contacting individuals and peoples, but neither was the knowledge substantiated in this way.
• He found scholasticism sterile, so he decided to make a profound critique and proposed that modernity had to build everything from reason.