Rationalism and Empiricism

Emily Estanislau
Blog Post 2
PHI 100-24N
10/14/2014

Rationalism vs. Empiricism

In the debate between empiricism and rationalism, empiricists believe that all ideas come from previous experiences and no ideas are innate. While rationalists argue that ideas not only come from experience but ideas are innate as well. I agree with empiricism, that all ideas come from a person’s previous experiences with their senses and trial and error.

The experiences a person faces from the moment of birth will impact their ideas. An empiricist name John Locke believed the mind is Tabula Rasa or a “blank slate”. All ideas come from the five senses, which are sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. An argument for empiricism being more plausible than rationalism is if a person never experiences a certain impression, then they wont have a comparable idea. Any beliefs or ideas that a person has come from previous experiences throughout their life. The moment you are born you experience so much with your five senses and with trial and error. When a child is born they learn through trial and error that with crying they will get the parents attention and their needs will be taken care of. People are not born with a general idea of what shapes and colors look like, they learn through experiencing them with their senses.

In Descartes wax example we can see how things go through radical change while still being the same thing. Through experiences and using sight we can learn that a caterpillar goes through a radical change by becoming a butterfly. We will learn that it was originally the caterpillar.

For explanatory breadth I believe that empiricism explains the origin of ideas better than rationalism. Empiricism talks about how we get ideas through the many experiences one has throughout a lifetime. With rationalism one already is born with some innate ideas.

For explanatory depth rationalism explains the origin of certain ideas in greater detail than empiricism. Rationalism focuses on a wider range where ideas come from. Ideas are innate and some ideas come from experience.

For simplicity, empiricism has fewer parts than rationalism. Rationalism focuses on innate ideas and some from experience. Empiricism only focuses on ideas from experience. What is complex about rationalism is you have to differ between what ideas are innate and which just come from experiences.

Empiricism is more conservative than rationalism. New experiences create new ideas and build upon older ideas from the previous experiences. People believe that learning will create more ideas and understanding of things.

1. The theory of empiricism and the theory of rationalism are the most plausible explanations of the origin of ideas.

2. The theory of empiricism has much more explanatory depth and simplicity, whereas the theory of rationalism has a little more explanatory breadth.

3. Therefore, the theory of empiricism is the best explanation of the origin of ideas.