16
votes
Accepted
How do rationalists justify the scientific method?
It may be a misnomer to say rationalism was created to oppose empiricism, but I see what you are getting at.
All rationalism claims, is that some knowledge about the world comes a priori - either ...
- 386
9
votes
How do rationalists justify the scientific method?
First off, rationalism predates empiricism. Rationalism is arguably the normative mode of philosophical enquiry all the way back into prehistory; clearly (for instance) most of ancient Greek ...
- 21.8k
8
votes
Accepted
What are the more complex/interesting examples of synthetic a priori statements?
The notion of a priori changed a lot since Kant, see Did Kant consider Newtonian mechanics a priori? Today they are seen as potentially fallible, even if not empirical.
The Austrian school, ...
- 43.7k
8
votes
Does philosophy shed any light on how parties can fruitfully debate without an agreed source of truth?
From a purely epistemological point of view, no, philosophy is not really helpful. If anything, philosophy makes things worse. See this post and this post and the responses to it.
From a social point ...
- 27.7k
8
votes
Was there a "mechanist" program of early rationalists, like Descartes and Leibniz?
Mechanist (or mechanical) philosophy, in the original sense, meant the rejection of "substantial forms", i.e. forms with causal powers, such as souls, postulated by scholastics (who drew on some vague ...
- 43.7k
8
votes
Is there "empirical" distance without "mathematical" distance?
The mathematical concept of distance is an abstraction of the physical experience of distance. As such, we can use the mathematical concept to discuss 'distance' between things that are non-physical ...
- 21.8k
8
votes
Is there "empirical" distance without "mathematical" distance?
Are formal notions our best models of that experience of what we see with a ruler, or can we go further by saying that they are the same thing?
Many people used to believe that empirical distance ...
- 2,224
8
votes
Can art be rated objectively?
Generally when people speaking plainly to share their true opinions(1) say that some piece of art is of high quality, the meaning is that...
it is the sort of thing that people generally like
it ...
- 7,308
7
votes
Accepted
Rationalism and Catholicism / Protestantism
To suggest a different perspective, Whitehead writes the following: (page 8-9)
The Reformation and the scientific movement were two aspects of the historical revolt which was the dominant ...
- 19.6k
6
votes
Is this a real quote by Bergson
I have seen this quote in multiple books by the Turkish poet, Ahmet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek, who actually was a student of Henri Bergson.
However, I am not aware if this quote appears in one of Bergson'...
- 169
5
votes
How do rationalists justify the scientific method?
Rationality is essentially human logic plus empirical facts. Science is essentially a systematic and rigorous application of human rationality. The scientific method is therefore rational. Thus, ...
- 9,014
5
votes
Does philosophy shed any light on how parties can fruitfully debate without an agreed source of truth?
Here are the questions regarding the extreme partisanship of politics today:
Is there any philosophical thinking which might help resolve these disputes and allow the political discussion to move ...
- 19.6k
5
votes
Spinoza and causality
Spinoza is not in any straightforward way a follower of Descartes. Descartes, for instance, believes that there are two substances, mind and body. For Spinoza, by contrast, there is only one substance;...
- 35.9k
5
votes
Can there be information without a "knower"?
An objective, "mind-independent", view is a staple of physics, but so is the possibility of observation. The information lost in burning is not entirely unrecoverable, it is recoverable in theory, and ...
- 43.7k
5
votes
Spinoza’s argument for substance monism
Option 1 is ruled out by Spinoza's conception of attribute. No two substances can share an attribute, because for Spinoza an attribute both specifies the qualitative 'kind' of an entity, and also its ...
- 2,435
5
votes
Are only human beings capable of rationally intentional acts?
Long story short
This is evidently false. As it is discussed whether great apes can work towards shared ends, it is quite obvious that intentionality is seen as a given. Some animals can utilise ...
- 14.4k
4
votes
Measurement devices and empiricism
First, there's an article on measurement in science in the Stanford Encyclopedia.
The sociologist Harry Collins dubbed this problem "the experimenter's regress" in the 1980s. There's a brief ...
- 2,566
4
votes
Is there "empirical" distance without "mathematical" distance?
Is there empirical distance without mathematical distance?
Yes. A toddler might have the experience of distance (e.g. Goo, goo... so this is what movement feels like!), without having created the ...
- 7,900
4
votes
Is there "empirical" distance without "mathematical" distance?
Short Answer
Is there "empirical" distance without "mathematical" distance?
Broadly construed, yes. Distance as related by the senses, that which is perceptual, is different than ...
- 31.6k
4
votes
Accepted
What is the relationship between the scientific experimental method and the two espistemologies of empiricism and rationalism
The terms you are using are somewhat ambiguous. Here is a bit of clarification:
The first Empiricists were physicians of classical Greece who opposed the theories of the sort used by Hippocratic ...
- 11k
4
votes
Accepted
What are some cases in which we can use reason but not logic?
Reason is a broader concept that includes different forms of thinking, including thinking logically and draw conclusions based on evidence, experience, and principles. It involves the broader process ...
- 497
3
votes
What is common between the rationalists and empiricists?
Where there is disagreement, as there is between rationalists and empiricists, there is always a background of agreement : there can only be disagreement if you at least agree on what there is to ...
- 35.9k
3
votes
Descartes and existence
I don't think Descartes has a special idea of what it means for something to exist.
I think you may be confused when you write:
Is the only criterion to exist to be able to think?
Descartes' ...
- 24.9k
3
votes
Question about Cogito, ergo sum
Welcome, don. Thanks for a nice, reflective question.
The cogito has much less importance for Descartes than is commonly supposed. Its significance is twofold: (1) it is (merely) the first truth which ...
- 35.9k
3
votes
Is there "empirical" distance without "mathematical" distance?
Is there "empirical" distance without "mathematical" distance ?
Empirical distance lives in the physical world - it is the observed outcome of one or more physical measurements. ...
- 272
3
votes
What is the relationship between the scientific experimental method and the two espistemologies of empiricism and rationalism
Empericism claims knowledge is post-experience. Rationalism is the opposite view that knowledge is pre-experience. Experiments can be thought of as experiences and are aimed at acquiring knowledge ...
- 5,123
3
votes
What is the anti-thesis of Existentialism?
On a historical level, the answer to your question will depend on the existentialist you are looking at.
We often credit Kierkegaard as being the first existentialist, in which case the answer to your ...
- 1,011
3
votes
Can art be rated objectively?
To say that painting A is better than painting B because you like painting A more than painting B is indeed tautological. You can avoid the tautology by realising it and taking steps not to utter it. ...
- 24.8k
3
votes
Can art be rated objectively?
You can objectively measure how an art piece performs on a particular metric, but you must then make a subjective value judgment about how that metric translates to "better" or "worse&...
- 131
2
votes
Accepted
How are the relation between monads formed?
Leibniz's theory of monads is complex and quite obscure :
Leibniz's [...] celebrated theory of monads, in which the only beings that will count as genuine substances and hence be considered real ...
- 38.3k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible