Empiricism And Rationalism Similarities

Rationalism and Empiricism are both separate theories of epistemology which is the attempt to understand the theory of knowledge. Though, the contrast between rationalism and empiricism are extreme. They both differentiate from each other and the key concepts of each other are largely contrasted. Empiricism, is the theory in which one learns through experience which is also known as ‘a posterior.’ Meanwhile, rationalism is when one uses logic and reason to come to a conclusion before the experience has taken place, this is known as ‘a priori.’ The key principles of rationalism are innate ideas, deduction and reason. Whereas empiricism, the principles are there are no innate ideas, induction trumps deduction and sense perception is the last …show more content…
They both propose ideas that strive to answer what knowledge is and how it works. Rationalists believe in innate ideas and empiricists do not. Innate ideas are ideas that are placed in one’s head before they are born into the world. This is also known as reincarnation; for myself I am not a believer of reincarnation besides when Jesus reincarnated but I do support the idea that our minds are not completely blank at birth. According to Descartes, innate ideas can explain why some people are born naturally better at something even though one may have had the same experiences. We are all born with different and unique talents, and Descartes believe this is the case because of the innate nature of a human. As well, morality is innate, I support this because as humans we cannot experience things such as human rights with our 5 senses. Hume says morality is based solely on emotions, but as Locke says, experience can provide us with data to show what is morally right and …show more content…
I strongly believe that rationalism surpasses empiricism through the ideas of innate thoughts. Innate thoughts are placed in our minds to help us understand wrong from right. Rationalism also uses reason to come to a conclusion rather than living through the experience. Yes, we do learn from our experiences, but we can also use our brains to come up with assumptions of possible outcomes. Lastly we can rely on the principles of deduction, because we know for a fact that what is being studied or what is happening is for certain. Whereas induction, is just a possible theory with possible faults; something we cannot rely on. For these main reasons rationalism is a better theory of knowledge and provides a deeper truth than empiricism. Descartes is a profound philosopher who came up with many good thoughts about the branch of philosophy,