Empiricism and rationalism in the philosophy of modern times

The era of the 17th century is characterized by the first bourgeois revolutions in England and the Netherlands, as well as by radical changes in various spheres of the society's life: in politics, economics, social relations and consciousness. And, of course, all this could not but be reflected in philosophical thinking.

Empiricism and rationalism : the preconditions for development

The development of science in modern times was determined by manufactory production, the growth of world trade, navigation and military affairs. Then the ideal of man was seen in an enterprising merchant and an inquisitive scientist. The advanced states of Europe, striving for economic and military domination, supported science: the formation of scientific academies, societies, circles.

Therefore, the science of modern times has developed so well and it was then that algebra, analytical geometry, the foundations of integral and differential calculi, etc. appeared. All scientific research was united in a single method, experimental and mathematical. Leading the same direction was a mechanic, studying the motion of bodies and played just a huge methodological significance in the emergence of philosophical and philosophical views of the 17th century.

Philosophy is tied to social soil not only through natural science, but also with the help of a religious worldview, state ideology. The scientists turned to the divine omnipotence, to the "world reason", and to the "first-minute". And the correlation of idealism and materialism, atheism and theism - is not a tough alternative - "either this or that ..." Philosophers agree on the natural-science vision of the world with the existence of the so-called transcendent personality. Thus, the concept of the "two truths" (natural and divine) in the Modern Times disintegrated and with a double force began a polemic over what is the basis of true knowledge - experience or reason? So, in the 17th century a new philosophy emerged, based on the ideas of the importance of experimental and experimental study of the world and the self-worth of reason.

Empiricism and rationalism: the definition of categories

Rationalism is such a philosophical concept, by which it is meant that the basis and being, and cognition is the mind.

Empiricism is a philosophical concept that implies that experience is the basis of all knowledge. Supporters of this trend believe that there is no power in the mind, and force is only in knowledge, sensory experience. In this case, the idealistic empiricism is distinguished, where experience is represented as a set of representations and sensations, and materialistic, where the external world is taken as the source of sensory experience.

Empiricism and rationalism : the main representatives

Prominent representatives among the rationalists were the following: Plato, Socrates, Epicurus, Democritus, Kant, Descartes, Spinoza, Baruch, Leibniz. The empirical worldview was supported by Francis Bacon, John Dewey, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke.

Empiricism and rationalism in the philosophy of modern times : problems

The most difficult for both philosophical concepts was the problem of the nature and origin of the non-sensory components of consciousness - ideas and explanations of the fact of their indisputable presence in the composition of knowledge.

How did the supporters of such concepts, such as rationalism and empiricism, solve this problem? The former turned to the doctrine of what innate properties of our consciousness we possess. Most of its insensitive elements arise, according to their opinion, and appear from the properties of the human consciousness itself. It as it exists as an independent world and can function and develop without resorting to the external world. Thus, it seems possible to have an adequate knowledge of reality, and the conditions for its emergence is the ability to extract and process, with the help of logic alone, all ideas and knowledge about the external world.

The conclusions of the empirical theory are directly opposed to rationalism. Thus, knowledge arises outside the subject, its sources are sensations, and the result is the processing of materials and information that the senses supply . Reason, consider the empiricists, of course, takes part in the processing of sensations, but to knowledge does not add anything new.