Rationalism vs. Empiricism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Rationalism vs. Empiricism - Essay Example . Contrary to empiricists, rationalists embrace deduction. This means being able to prove something by relying on certainty and not reason. For instance, Descartes relied on deductive reasoning as a way of proving God’s existence. Conversely, empiricism denotes a belief in the sense perception as the source of knowledge. For example, John Locke explained this belief by dividing sense perception into two parts that include simple and complex ideas. The simple ideas emerge from only on perception. This may include for example, perception of color or size. On the other hand, complex ideas are derived by combining the simple ideas (Alexander 58). Further, another belief that separates empiricism from rationalism involves the acquisition of ideas through experience. In essence, ideas according to empiricists, are not acquired through an innate process. Empiricism does not embrace innate ideas in the sense that, knowledge varies. For instance, a child’s mind is a tabula rasa, but learns from experience. In essence, if they possess the knowledge, they should use it from the start. According to Lock, simple ideas emanate from experience, and those ideas are combined to form complex ideas. In addition, empiricism contrary to rationalism endorse a belief in induction. This is the belief that only a few phenomenon are proven conclusively. For example, people identify things through their sense perception. However, most perceptions cannot be concluded to agree with the objects being perceived (Alexander 65).