RATIONALISM
By: Kwon Sung “DAISY” Ryung GC 201 1st Semester 2008-09
INTRODUCTION
RATIONALISM By: Daisy Kwon
WHAT IS RATIONALISM? It is a method or a theory in which the standard of the truth is not based on the sensory but intellectual.
BACKGROUND
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Eleatics, Pythagoreans and Plato
theory of the self-sufficiency of reason became the idealism associated with introduction of mathematical methods
Enlightenment
BACKGROUND
Difference between… EMPIRICISM
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RATIONALISM
This was not possible in practice for human beings except in specific areas such as mathematics
HISTORY
Classical Greek Rationalists
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SOCRATES
“Before anyone can understand the world, they first need to understand themselves”
MAN
body
soul
HISTORY
Classical Greek Rationalists
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SOUL
emotions
true self
HISTORY
Classical Greek Rationalists
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“…take out the irrational soul from its bondage, hence the need for moral development…”
Why????
That’s why we need to go beyond our level to know the truth.
Really? But if… then you think?
HISTORY
Neo-platonism
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PLATO
Neoplatonism is generally a religious philosophy. Neoplatonism is a form of idealistic monism and combines elements of polytheism
THE RATIONALISTS
Rene Descartes
“…the only way to obtain the eternal truths is to know only reason” “…truths are gained without any sensory experience"
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René Descartes (1596–1650)
Cogito ergo sum
THE RATIONALISTS
Rene Descartes
The "cogito" reveals the existence of the subject, limited and imperfect because liable to
doubt. It is necessary to arrive at
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an objective and perfect reality, i.e., to prove the existence of God.
René Descartes (1596–1650)
THE RATIONALISTS
Rene Descartes Three arguments:
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THE RATIONALISTS
Gottfried Leibniz
Leibniz rejected Cartesian dualism, and refused the existence of a material world.
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“The basic constituents of the universe are simple substances he called monads, infinite in number, nonmaterial, and hierarchically arranged.”
Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716)
THE RATIONALISTS
Immanuel Kant
Only objects of experience, phenomena, may be known,
whereas things lying beyond
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experience, cannot be known, even though in some cases we assume a prior knowledge of them.
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
--THE END--
Monism is a theological view that believes all is one, that all reality (including God) is included in the most fundamental category of being or existence