Rationalism and Hume's Empiricism (Essay Sample)

Instructions:

Briefly compare the core assumptions of Descartes’ Rationalism and Hume’s Empiricism. Evaluate the two views and say which you find more compelling, making sure to argue for your position with support and reasoning.
This essay asks you to do two main things, after you have demonstrated an understanding of Descartes’ and Hume’s positions: (1) succinctly state an original position (in this case, which view you find more compelling, Descartes’ or Hume’s), and (2) support that position with sound reasoning and analysis of appropriate evidence.
Make sure you do not spend too much time demonstrating your understanding of Descartes’ and Hume’s positions (comparing them). This is the shortest portion of the assignment and the argumentation section (1 and 2 above) is the most important section for your grade.
In this essay you must use rational argumentation and support your claims with evidence and logic. It is not enough to say that your position is correct because you want it to be, or that’s your experience of the world, or it’s how you see things, or it just seems right to you. In academic work those are not sufficient reasons to take a position. You must draw on things like logic (does ‘b’ follow from ‘a’ as the author claims it does?), textual evidence (what does Hume say on page 34 and is it right, logical, and consistent with his other claims?) and external evidence. This last category (external evidence) is the most dangerous category. Certain kinds of things might seem like appropriate evidence to you but they will not meet the standards of academic work in this context. In a literature class, a novel might be sufficient evidence for a particular type of claim, but if you are making an argument about how knowledge works in a philosophy paper I will not find literary sources (even the Bible) particularly convincing. The same goes for websites and blogs, political commentary, your personal experiences and anecdotal evidence, folk wisdom, etc. The distinguishing factor is whether a source has authority that can be widely recognized by educated and intelligent people. If a person does not have authority to speak on a particular topic (if they do not back up their claims with evidence, if they have not studied the matter carefully, if they just make pronouncements and radical claims, if the source is primarily intended to do other things than provide argumentation (such as inspirational, religious and literary texts), then they should not be cited as authoritative evidence in your paper. The source or author may have authority in other contexts, but what matters is whether or not they can be widely accepted as having authority in this particular context. Be sure to consult the “reasoning” section of the Belmont guide to writing an argument, which I have made available on Blackboard. Also consult the list of logical fallacies to evaluate your own reasoning and to check for logical fallacies.

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Briefly compare the core assumptions of Descartes’ Rationalism and Hume’s Empiricism. Evaluate the two views and say which you find more compelling, making sure to argue for your position with support and reasoning.
In the study of knowledge, Descartes’ and Hume’s came up with disputing theories to explain the origin of knowledge. Descartes’ rationalism theory stated that, knowledge starts with the mind, the set of ideas that we have, and the mental element that sorts out and interprets experience. He argued that the mind is primary while the actual data is secondary. The main assumption in rationalism is that, things of the world are known through reasoning and intuition. Furthermore, the reasoning is inspired by god or innate nature, and everyone is born with it (Huenemann, 23). Hume’s on the other hand, argued that all knowledge starts from the senses; that is, the knowledge of the world is based on sensation. The main assumption in empiricism is that, knowledge is gained from experience. In addition, observation either by hearing or seeing and experimentation gives the right experience to gain knowledge.
Descartes’ rationalistic view of the origin of knowledge seems more compelling than Hume’s empiricism theory. The fact that we use our sense and experience to gain knowledge lacks sufficient proof to verify some acts. Some concepts as it will be outlined below cannot be gained by experience. It is true that experience acts as an essential trigger to the innate concepts within us, so that they can gain consciousness, but the idea that experience itself results to concept and ideas is exaggerated. This paper will outline why the rationalism theory is more compelling as compared to empiricism, it will give reasons and analysis of appropriate evidence.
Every human perceives; we perceive that we have bodies, that our bodies have feelings, emotions and sensation. Perception can be said to be a naturally occurring experience, we do not gain it through observation or experimentation. It is unconditional, and occurs naturally within us. This naturally occurring experience which is involuntary produces a set of ideas. These are the ideas that are innate and just found within us. Humans do not need acquired experience to know their bodily appetite, feeling or even emotion; this comes automatic within an individual (Huenemann, 60). Anyone will clearly differentiate the feeling of pain and feeling of love even if he/she has never felt pain or experience love before. The fact that we have perception is a good reason to state that we have innate knowledge within us.
Imagination is common to most of us; we imagine of images, all sorts of physical images. These images are derived from the senses; they may also be created from the mind itself. The imagination comprises such images which we have never seen or heard of before. When we imagine we do not just use our intellect, but we go to the extent of using more force; a force of imagination that we have not yet acquired through experience (Bruce 74). Therefore, this means that apart from what we actually believe we know, there is more knowledge within us which we have not acquired by experience. It is just within us hence innate knowledge as stated by rationalistic theory.
The rational intuition; that we consider and acknowledge something is true just by recognizing it is true. There exist natural truth within us, we do not need experience to appreciate that some things are true, just by how they are. We can know they are true from our own minds. It is very easy to understand and appreciate an answer in mathematics despite not having prior ideas about maths, being in a class of mathematics, one can easily recognize that it is true to say 2 plus 2 equals 4 (Huenemann, 73). Also, one can agree by recognizing, that 3 is a prime number and is greater than 2 or agree the shape of an egg is oval by just recognizing its oval. This means that most of the information and ideas are within us. It is just that, these ideas and concepts have not yet been triggered. In case they are triggered, it becomes very easy to remember what we have in our innate nature.
Humans discover what physical objects are and their essential nature by evaluating their concept of physical environment. Sense experience alone could not tell the essential physical objects at the beginning (Huenemann, 44). There must be initial naturally occurring information, concept, or set of ideas that humans used to know the essential nature of physical environment. For humans to know about physical objects existence, what they are, and their importance, they need innate information and not senses experience. At the beginning there was no such senses experience, hence humans could not have ever discovered any of the essential nature of physical objects, if they relied on sense experience alone.
Invention is the process of coming up with new sets of ideas or thinking, which have never been used or seen before. These ideas are used to produce new items or change the way people do things. Overtime, many individuals across the world have invented new items which had never been used before (Bruce 54). From the early days when wheel was invented, to the modern world where computers have been invented. ...

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Rationalism and Hume's Empiricism (Essay Sample)

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