Rationalism vs. Empiricism

       Not everyone can agree on where Ideas come from. Some believe that you get ideas from the experiences you have in life (empiricists) and others say that some ideas are natural and the rest come from experiences (rationalists). I would have to agree with the empiricists.


      You don't realize it until you go through it but people change just like the wax as they grow up. When you are younger you have a stress free life and you are ignorant. Ignorance is truly bliss because the adult life is full of stressful never ending responsibilities you have to live up to. The changing process from child to adult is just like Decartes wax example, you are still the same person. What you are is the same you are just different in your level of knowledge, the way you look, the way you present yourself. But the person on the inside, your soul, your character is still the same.


        (A)Rationalism has more  Explanatory breadth then empiricism because some ideas are formulated within our minds and we have no experience with them yet at all. Take entrepreneurs for example when they come up with an original idea from their own thoughts it couldn't have been done by experience because they have no prior experience with this idea. Empiricism fails to address ideas that we don't gain from experience but rather from what we see. On the television for example if you are watching Harry Potter and you get the idea that it would be really cool to fly you are never going to be able to have experience with that because we don't have magic brooms.


         (B) Empiricism has more explanatory depth then rationalism because we have writings and fossils of things that existed before us. We can see the origin of these ideas. Explanations like this (Evolution, The law of gravity) are more detailed because we have accounts of them and they can be proven.


         (C) Empiricism is more simplistic then rationalism because it is very cut and dry this idea came from this experience I had or from this experience my father had. If you have had the experience you could have either (a) learned from it or (b) had a good outcome from it so there is less likely to be an error if it had a good outcome but if it had a bad outcome then you learned a lesson from it and thus making the error evident to you and then you wont make it in the future. The error wont be hidden it'll be out in the open if there is one. However rationalism is more complex because you are playing the guessing game. If some ideas didn't come from experience where did they come from and how can you prove them? There are way more factors to add up.


          (D) Empiricism has more conservatism then rationalism because it is more consistent with our current, common sense beliefs. Why is that? Because our common sense beliefs such that gravity exists and effects us all can be proven. Just drop a pencil and you know that that is gravity at work. The ideas that come from experience can be proven but the ideas that are innate and "hardwired" into your system are much harder to prove.


1. Empiricism and Rationalism are the most plausible explanations of the origin of ideas.
2.Empiricism has much more explanatory depth, simplicity, and conservatism whereas rationalism has a little more explanatory breadth.
3. Therefore empiricism is the best explanation of the origin of ideas