Rationalism

November 20, 2009

[rash‘-uh-nuh-liz’-um]

(Latin rationalis, “reason”)

The theory of epistemology (the study of knowledge) which limits knowledge to that which is intuitively known without regard to experience (contra empiricism). Rene Descartes is often referred to as the father of rationalism, believing that all knowledge must be justified by innate intellectual deduction. John Locke and David Hume challenged the rationalistic assumption.

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