RATIONALISM

Rationalism designates a variety of philosophical schools maintaining that reason, as opposed to empirical investigation, is the most important method of acquiring knowledge. There are several ways in which this epistemological conviction can be articulated, depending upon what is understood by “reason.” Plato’s view that genuine knowledge can only come through reflecting upon the unchangeable realm of the Forms can be classified as a branch of Rationalism, but the Rationalist view is most prominently associated with the so-called Continental Rationalists of the seventeenth-century, who were inspired by developments in the mathematical sciences. René Descartes (1596–1650), for instance, argued that all knowledge must be based on indubitable first principles (such as cogito ergo sum, “I think; therefore, I am”). Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), in contrast, maintained that the logical connection between our ideas will mirror the actual (causal) connections between objects; thus, a complete axiomatization of our a priori knowledge could yield empirical results. Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646–1716) argued that even scientific laws could be derived from purely intellectual considerations, although he did so on the assumption that God never does anything without sufficient reason. Rationalism is usually contrasted with Empiricism,
which maintains that our physical senses are the most important vehicles for acquiring knowledge