Rationalism

What is Rationalism

It is understood by rationalism to the philosophical doctrine that affirms and maintains the supremacy of reason over experience. Rationalism is the absolutization of reason.

The thesis of rationalism is characterized by the real, by concepts or mental systems and by the explanation of science in logical terms.

This arose in the 17th century and the philosopher René Descartes is usually pointed out as the father of rationalism, who argued that the only way to obtain universal truths from which all other knowledge of science emanates is reason.

That is why rationalism says that reason is the generator of knowledge and that this knowledge is innate in the being, but that it is hidden in our mind.

On some occasions, rationalism is associated with atheism, since all its positions and theses put reason over experience and even exalt it over faith itself.

In the doctrine of rationalism it is maintained that man as a thinking being, capable of reasoning, uses this tool to generate knowledge, that is, knowledge and leaves the perception of the senses and the experience itself on a more distant level, since Reason is within the being and is innate to it.

The term is also used rationalism in architecture and serves to refer to that branch of architecture that opposed the excessive ornamentation that was proposed in the art nouveau and that was developed at the end of the First World War.

See also Art nouveau.

This movement sought to encourage the construction of simple and dynamic forms that had to be made with materials such as steel and concrete.

Rationalism and empirical

We have already said that these two theories are contrary to each other, however it is important to say that the empirical method is based on experience and maintains that knowledge derives from lived experiences (empirical method), and from what is recorded at through the senses, such as the method of observation.

But the rational model, as we have already explained, expresses that reason is more important than experience, since the senses can deceive a person, for whatever reasons, while reason cannot deceive the being.

It is in this way that these theses or theories contradict each other, giving more importance to reason (rationalism) and experience and sense perception (empiricism).

For more information, see: Empiricism.

Rationalism and positivism

Positivism emerges as a branch of empiricism since it considers only knowledge that comes exclusively from experience as valid.

This provided scientific knowledge for the reorganization of social life as a human being, understanding that this must be studied by science, based on the experiences lived by humanity after the entire process of the Industrial Revolution that brought with it the study of the worker. as a human being and person full of rights.

See also: Philosophical currents.

Rationalism and surrealism

Surrealism is presented as an anti-rationalist idea, that is, it is the antithesis of it, by virtue of the thought or idea that explains that realism (rationalism) is an attempt to appropriate the multiple possible ways of seeing reality or being realistic. , since there are infinite ways to mean, know or conceptualize that incomprehensible whole that we call reality.

It is logical to understand that in surrealism imagination clearly predominates and has great preponderance over reason and perception, since the latter two must adapt to everything that human beings can and are capable of imagining.

See also: Surrealism.