rationalism

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Related to rationalism: empiricism

ra·tion·al·ism

(răsh′ə-nə-lĭz′əm)

1. Reliance on reason as the best guide for belief and action.

2. Philosophy The theory that the exercise of reason, rather than experience, authority, or spiritual revelation, provides the primary basis for knowledge.

ra′tion·al·ist n.

ra′tion·al·is′tic adj.

ra′tion·al·is′ti·cal·ly adv.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

rationalism

(ˈræʃənəˌlɪzəm)

1. reliance on reason rather than intuition to justify one's beliefs or actions

2. (Philosophy) philosophy

a. the doctrine that knowledge about reality can be obtained by reason alone without recourse to experience

b. the doctrine that human knowledge can all be encompassed within a single, usually deductive, system

c. the school of philosophy initiated by Descartes which held both the above doctrines

3. the belief that knowledge and truth are ascertained by rational thought and not by divine or supernatural revelation

ˈrationalist n

ˌrationalˈistic adj

ˌrationalˈistically adv

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ra•tion•al•ism

(ˈræʃ ə nlˌɪz əm)

n.

1. the principle or habit of accepting reason as the supreme authority in matters of opinion, belief, or conduct.

a. a philosophic doctrine that reason alone is a source of knowledge and is independent of experience.

b. a doctrine that all knowledge is expressible in self-evident propositions or their consequences.

3. a doctrine that human reason, unaided by divine revelation, is an adequate or the sole guide to all attainable religious truth.

[1790–1800]

ra′tion•al•ist, n.

rationalism

1. the doctrine that knowledge is gained only through the reason, a faculty independent of experience.
2. the doctrine that all knowledge is expressible in self-evident propositions or their consequences. — rationalist, n. — rationalistic, adj.

rationalism

[ˈræʃnəlɪzəm] N → racionalismo m

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

rationalism

[ˈræʃ^ənəlɪzəm] n → rationalisme m

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

rationalism

n → Rationalismus m

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

rationalism

[ˌræʃənəˌlɪzəm] n → razionalismo

References in classic literature ?

I, for instance, would not be in the least surprised if all of a sudden, a propos of nothing, in the midst of general prosperity a gentleman with an ignoble, or rather with a reactionary and ironical, countenance were to arise and, putting his arms akimbo, say to us all: "I say, gentleman, hadn't we better kick over the whole show and scatter rationalism to the winds, simply to send these logarithms to the devil, and to enable us to live once more at our own sweet foolish will!" That again would not matter, but what is annoying is that he would be sure to find followers--such is the nature of man.

View in context

His 'History of Rationalism in Europe,' for example, is a very fine monument of the most thorough research and most effective statement; but to a mature mind its interest is equally conspicuous.

View in context

We obtained a sufficient foundation for it by throwing into the slough some editions of books of morality, volumes of French philosophy and German rationalism; tracts, sermons, and essays of modern clergymen; extracts from Plato, Confucius, and various Hindoo sages together with a few ingenious commentaries upon texts of Scripture,--all of which by some scientific process, have been converted into a mass like granite.

View in context

Simon's rationalism, I still affirm that Becker was only partly present.

View in context

Karl Popper and Literary Theory: Critical Rationalism as a Philosophy of Literature

In this section morphological rationalism (also chromatic rationalism) will be defended as a model of moral cognition against two competing alternatives (traditional rationalism and social intuitionism).

Moral perception, cognition, and dialogue/Moralinis suvokimas, pazinimas ir dialogas

In this paper, it is argued that Weak Modal Rationalism, which is the view that ideal primary positive conceivability entails primary metaphysical possibility, is self-defeating.

Ratio: Vol. 28, No. 1, March 2015

To the waves of democratic expansion, social unrest, political revolutions, economic debacle, geopolitical uncertainty, and war, important intellectual elites of the Victorian Age responded with a deep and sweeping new approach to law: a "Great Alliance" between historicism, (4) rationalism, (5) and popular will.

The great alliance: history, reason, and will in modern law

First collected in Rationalism in Politics and Other Essays (1962), the most influential were written in the postwar decade when Britain was debating the terms of her return to normality.

A new look at Michael Oakeshott

Bennett, Words, Space, and the Audience: The Theatrical Tension Between Empiricism and Rationalism (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012), Pages 179.

Noun	1.	rationalism - (philosophy) the doctrine that knowledge is acquired by reason without resort to experience philosophy - the rational investigation of questions about existence and knowledge and ethics philosophical doctrine, philosophical theory - a doctrine accepted by adherents to a philosophy
	2.	rationalism - the theological doctrine that human reason rather than divine revelation establishes religious truth theological doctrine - the doctrine of a religious group deism, free thought - the form of theological rationalism that believes in God on the basis of reason without reference to revelation
	3.	rationalism - the doctrine that reason is the right basis for regulating conduct freethinking doctrine, ism, philosophical system, philosophy, school of thought - a belief (or system of beliefs) accepted as authoritative by some group or school