Traditionally, there are five main subfields of philosophy. They are metaphysics, epistemology, logic, ethics, and aesthetics. Epistemology is the subfield of philosophy concerned with the concept of knowledge, how we learn, and what we have the ability to learn. The main concerns of epistemology are the definition of knowledge, the sources of knowledge, the process of acquiring knowledge,the limitations of knowledge, and the validity of knowledge. It is describing how our mind creates our reality. Epistemology considers that knowledge can be obtained through one of two things; either through reason or experience. Two branches within epistemology are rationalism and empiricism. They differ regarding their knowledge basis; the source of their concepts and ideas. Rationalism and empiricism are very plainly the direct opposite of each other. Rationalism is the belief in innate ideas, reason, and the process of deduction. Empiricism is the belief in sense perception, induction, and that there are no innate ideas. Rationalists rely on reason as a purely deductive process to attain justified truths about reality. In contrast empiricists, believe that knowledge is derived from the role of experience and sense of data to formulate ideas. Two of the most famous philosophers of epistemology are Rene Descartes and David Hume. Rene Descartes being a rationalist and David Hume being an empiricist. In this paper I will give my understanding of both rationalism and empiricism, describe the ideas and contributions each of the men made to their respective schools, and give my personal reasoning why one is more true than the other.
Rationalism is accredited to several famous philosophers. Rene Descartes, Baruch Spinoza, Gottfried Leibnitz, and Immanuel Kant are all given credit for their work in developing modern rationalism. Rationalism is the idea that reason and logic are the basis of knowledge. It also includes the idea that knowledge is innate.
