Rationalism

Rationalism is the epistemological perspective that respects reason as the chief source and
test of information or any sight engaging to reason as a source of information or avocation. It is
the philosophy that information comes from rationale and a certain kind of intuition. When we
quickly know something to be accurate without derivation, such as “I am conscious.” Rationalists
hold that the most perfect way to reach at the certain knowledge is utilizing the mind’s rational
capacities. Rationalism is any scheme that emphasizes the use of reason to determine the truth. It
proposed that the mind is given authority over the senses. It is like a priori over a posteriori. The
priori is a knowledge that obtained by analyzing concepts while the a posteriori is a knowledge
that obtained through experience.
Rationalists proposed that reason does not require experience in order to be understood and
that all the truth of the world exists in innate forms. They believe that there is knowledge available
to us but there are truths that exist outside the knowledge. They also stated that the key to have
knowledge and achieve an understanding of what is truth is reason. It draws together the universe
of knowledge and truth to unify understanding of why we exist, where we are going, and how
we're going to get there. It is important for the reason that we develop logic and reasons to answer
our problems. Rationalism leads to knowledge and further scientific discoveries.
René Descartes who was born on 1569 and died on 1650, is one of the earliest and most
well-known proponents of Rationalism, which is often known as Cartesianism. Without the need
for any sensory experience, Descartes believed that knowledge of everlasting truths could be
obtained by reason alone. His famous dictum "Cogito ergo sum" which means I think, therefore I
am" is an interpretation reached a priori and not through an assumption from experience. On the
other hand, Gottfried Leibniz attempted to amend what he saw as few of the problems that were
not resolved by Descartes, by integrating Descartes' work with Aristotle's notion of form and his
own formulation of the universe as composed of monads. He believed that ideas exist in the
intellect naturally, but only in a virtual sense. It is only when the mind contemplates on itself that
those ideas are actualized. Another well-known Rationalist, Nicolas Malebranche, tried to square
the Rationalism of René Descartes with his well-built Christian convictions and his absolute
acceptance of the teachings of St. Augustine. Although humans obtain knowledge through ideas
rather than sensory discernment, those ideas exist only in God, so that when we access them
intellectually, we detain objective truth. Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Charles de Secondat
are the French rationalists of Enlightenment, these philosophers constructed some of the most
powerful and influential political and philosophical writing in Western history, and had a defining
impact on the succeeding history of Western democracy and Liberalism. Immanuel Kant who
started as a traditional Rationalist, having studied Leibniz and Christian Wolff yet after also
studying the empiricist David Hume's works, he developed a peculiar and very influential
Rationalism of his own, which ventured to synthesize the traditional rationalist and empiricist
traditions.
Mathematics is a good example of rationalism. To a rationalist, you don’t have to perceive
the society or have the experiences to be able to understand that 1+1=2. What you only have to
know is the concepts “one” and “addition,” and then you can recognize that it’s correct. Another
example for this is not believing in supernatural. For the reason that this philosophy practices
believing based on reason rather than experiences.
 Leader: Mary Joy A. Tan
Members:
Jheg Matiga
Kate Princess Encallado
Alexandra Agura
Elysa Gabryella Basahan

References:

https://www.philosophybasics.com/movements_rationalism.html?fbclid=IwAR0B7xB0MjHYP
MF4rsw3AndaZf25MHVcD4Ok8E122AZwJC5o077hrnjtLXU#:~:text=Ren%C3%A9%20Desca
rtes%20is%20one%20of,formulation%20of%20Rationalism%20as%20Cartesians
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJih_t9s4iY
https://philosophyterms.com/rationalism/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPBcuVNMo8I
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rationalism