Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Rationalism VS. Empiricism



Rationalism VS. Empiricism
            In this life, some people believe that ideas come from experience, which is empiricism, and some believe that some ideas come naturally to us, and other ideas come from experience, which is rationalism.  A lot of people often can’t agree on this topic, but I personally think that ideas come straight from experience, empiricism.  The reason why I think that all of our ideas come from our experiences, is that when we are born, we have no experience in our lives, therefore we aren’t able to walk, talk, or think.  As we get older, by experiencing hearing, and      experiencing how to walk, we start to speak, walk and clearly think. Therefore in my opinion until u try something you don’t really know what you are doing or how to do it.
            Descartes melting wax example stated that as the wax melts, it’s still the same wax, there is still the same amount of wax.  We as human beings aren’t born with knowledge and we aren’t able to do all the things that our parents can for example.  However as people grow, we are still the same human being, our thought change and the way we act changes, but it all changes after we have had the chance to experience life.  It is still the same person just grown up, so the person and the wax are very similar, they both change, but they also both stay the same.
A.    Rationalism has more explanatory breadth then empiricism, because not all of, but most, our ideas come from experience, for example, people are coming up with new inventions every day, they have never had experience with that item, or thing in their lives, but yet somehow they still come up with the idea.  Maybe they come up with the new invention my thinking about two different objects and putting them together, but they haven’t yet had the chance to experience it as a whole.  Empiricism lacks the explanation for what happens in our minds.  Ideas that we think of aren’t yet experienced but we still have the ability to come out with them from our imagination, for example a unicorn, a person wouldn’t have experienced a unicorn because they don’t exist, but he come up with the idea from his imagination.
B.     Empiricism has more explanatory depth then rationalism does.  Throughout our existence humans were able to locate fossils, and different forms of writing, such as those on cave walls, or in journals, therefore we are able to see the origin of these ideas in greater detail.  The explanations are more detailed because they can be proven, the fossils for example we know the date and time they come from because we have experience working with them for years.
C.     Empiricism is more simplistic then rationalism, because rationalism has two parts to it, it talks about natural ideas and those that come from experience, and empiricism only talks about experiences.  Empiricism is straight to the point, you learn from experience and rationalism ties in a natural factor which then is more likely to conceal hidden errors because there is more to think about when arguing for rationalism.  The thing that is more complex about rationalism is that once again it has two parts, it is more to think about when having to argue for rationalism, it isn’t straight forward and there are many factors involved.  One other thing about rationalism is that it is harder to prove that idea that you argue came naturally to you.
D.    Empiricism is more conservative to our common sense belief then rationalism is because, empiricism is proven, it has facts to support it.  We for example believe that gravity exists because we are able to prove it through the experience of things falling when you let go of them.  The believes that it is more consistent with are the ones are we are able to prove through experience, for example a women giving birth, she is the only one that can feel the pain therefore she is the only one capable of explaining exactly how it is.  If a guy is in the same room, he can imagine how the pain is but he can’t support it with experience therefore whatever he says won’t be necessarily be true because he had no experience with it.  
1.      Empiricism and Rationalism are the most plausible explanations for the origin of ideas.
2.       Empiricism has much more explanatory depth, simplicity and conservation, whereas Rationalism has a little more explanatory breadth.
3.      Therefore empiricism is the best explanation of the origin of ideas  

1 comment:

  1. I agree that Empiricism has more explanatory depth and simplicity than rationalism, but I disagree that it has less explanatory breadth. I think that it is harder to explain how a baby was born with ideas than it is learning from experience. Rationalism provides no proof for being humans being born with certain ideas, they just believe it.

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