Rationalism Argumentative Analysis

According to Solomon, Higgins, and Martin, rationalists is defined as those, “confident in the powers of reason,” while empiricism is known to be, “insisted upon the data of experience” (194). An example of a rationalists would be Plato, a famous Greek philosopher, who argued that knowledge is innate. Plato’s belief is that knowledge acquired through the senses are undependable, due to the ever-changing environment. However, another well-known rationalist, René Descartes, also argued in this movements favor. Descartes, who is acknowledged as the one who “began the modern emphasis on methodology,” reasoned that the senses are an unreliable way to gain knowledge on an event or object (Solomon, Higgins, and Martin 200). This is exemplified in
Rationalism, unfortunately, limits itself to change. Through experience we can begin to recognize and learn new ideals, learning tricks that can be done to cause artificial an artificial experience. Through this, rationalism is considered to be a restrictive mindset. Empiricism, developed by philosopher John Locke, is a movement that completely counteracts against the idea of rationalism (Solomon, Higgins, and Martin 200). It is an impression that knowledge is gained through the data of experience (Solomon, Higgins, and Martin 211). Locke, in an essence, combined the notion of deduction and induction, while also allowing room for certainty and probability (Solomon, Higgins, and Martin 211). He argues the theory of innate knowledge in his work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, written in 1698. In this, Locke points out individuals, such as children and the mentally impaired, are not capable of being conscious or being able to understand their imprinted knowledge, therefor, this completely disregards the concept of perception being born into us due to it being inefficacious (Solomon, Higgins, and Martin
The difficulties that are associated with this philosophical model is that Locke is unable to explain how we are able to grasp certain understandings without prior experience (Solomon, Higgins, and Martin 213). Locke is too reliant on the thought of experience and blank tablets that he almost makes the claim that we lack inner potential, a view already pointed out by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz,