Empiricism and Rationalism

One big disagreement in Philosophy is where our thoughts truly come from. Rationalists claim that some knowledge and concepts are innate. They believe we are born with some knowledge and concept and the rest are from experience. On the other hand, empiricists state that everything is learned from experiences. They consider that we are born with a blank slate and we have to go out in the world to learn. In my opinion the origins of ideas come from empiricism.

Empiricist is more of a reasonable idea because I do not think we are born with some knowledge and concepts. In Meditations on First Philosophy: Second Meditation, Descartes explains the wax argument and that we come to know things through experiences with that certain object. It is stated that the solid wax melts into a liquid puddle. Rationalist may be able to know what the wax is through sense. Our innate can tell us what it is and that it has melted but nothing further from that. This example is derived from experience because our sense and emotions cannot give us enough evidence that that the liquid and solid are both forms of wax. During his example his stance on the wax argument was for the rationalist view. He never discovered it was from an empiricist point of view. The wax goes through a change and one would never realize this is true without experiencing it.

For explanatory breadth, it questions which theory explains the origin of ideas more than the other and which one fails to address it. Empiricism is better at clarifying the origins of knowledge more than Rationalism does. Empiricism is straight forward in their ideas. It covers all sources of knowledge by saying it comes from experience. This mean one needs to have practical contact and observe the world around them. However, rationalism seems to be very two sided and uncertain because they believe the origin of ideas come from innate and then experiences. Since they already have some innate knowledge they don’t need to put as much effort into their learning. Furthermore, it is unclear and confusing where innate knowledge comes from and how we receive it. With Empiricism humans are learning and growing everyday with experiences. 

The theory that explains the origin of certain ideas in greater detail is explanatory depth. Empiricism has greater detail on the origin of certain ideas, while rationalism struggles coming up with details. Empiricist can provide several helpful examples from their real life experiences. Empiricist can go into greater detail on a more personal level with their experiences. However, rationalist cannot explain where there innate knowledge came from because they only know that they were born with it. Rationalism has no detail on where their innate ideas come from. As an empiricist there is always more experiences to go through and more detail to explain them further.

Simplicity states that one theory has fewer parts or assumptions than the other, making it less likely to conceal hidden errors and that there is one theory, which is more complex. Empiricism is the simplest example with fewer assumptions than rationalism because they have concert ideas with their experiences and they are not using their imagination. Rationalist tend to use their imagination because they were never told where their innate ideas came from. This makes rationalism very complex since their knowledge comes from innate and experiences. Empiricism is very simple with their definition by saying all ideas come from experience. You will not find errors in empiricism because it comes from true present day experiences.

Conservatism explains that one theory is more consistent with our current, common sense beliefs than the other. Rationalism is more consistent now in our current beliefs because we are all expected to know certain things, as we get older. Some things shouldn’t have to be taught to us or learn by experience since they are so easy to obtain. In our society there is certain knowledge we should have attained without experience. Being born in the 21^st century, there is so much more knowledge than before, which we need to grasp without experiences.

1. Empiricist and Rationalist are the most plausible explanation of where ideas come from.

2. Empiricist has much more explanatory depth and simplicity, whereas Rationalist has a little more explanatory breadth.

            3. Therefore, Empiricist is the best explanation of where ideas come from.