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rationalism

rationalism

5 7.7
The belief that reason and logic give true knowledge more than feeling or experience
  • noun
  • /ˈræʃənəlɪzəm/
  • Formal
translation icon : racionalismo
  • During the Enlightenment, rationalism emerged as a dominant ideology that challenged the reliance on authority and superstition.
  • rationalism and empiricism
  • Enlightenment rationalism
  • scientific rationalism

Is all rationalism being thereby dismissed?

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Examples

  • More fundamentally, however, the revolt was an expression of rationalism and antiauthoritarianism.

    Academic text (1990)
  • Hence, Montagu criticizes the Western preoccupation with emotionless rationalism, preferring the spontaneity and naturalness seen in the East.

    Academic text (2008)
  • I know that rationalism has had its day; the Age of Reason is no more.

    Fiction book (2000)
  • Yet this interest can also be explained in terms of a strong opposition to rationalism.

    Academic text (1994)
  • Historical development is a process of expanding rationalism and rationalization.

    Academic text (1991)
  • By contrast, the modern concept of individual rights is characterized by rationalism, individualism, and radicalism.

    Academic text (1991)
  • In responding to them, the members of Bloomsbury remained true to their belief in critical rationalism.

    Academic text (1990)
  • He steeped himself in the rationalism of the Enlightenment... and the romantic philosophy of Rousseau.

  • Interestingly, philosophical tradition, as well as intuition, suggests that empiricism and rationalism are independent epistemological perspectives.

    Academic text (1994)
  • The literature of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Western philosophy supports at least three dominant philosophical systems: rationalism, empiricism, and neo-idealism.

    Academic text (1993)

Synonyms

freethought
vsrationalism
3 7.5

To form opinions by using reason and evidence instead of following authority

is a broader view that makes reason the primary source of knowledge and guidance
freethinking
vsrationalism
2 7.6

Forming opinions using reason and facts instead of following tradition or authority

focuses on the same method but is a wide philosophical claim about knowledge
free thought
vsrationalism
1 7.2

A belief in religious ideas based on reason and facts rather than on tradition or leaders

applies reason as main source across knowledge not only religious belief

Antonyms

empiricism
  • Formal
6 8.4

A view that we learn mainly from experience, observation, and experiments

irrationalism
  • Formal
1 8.2

A belief that feelings, faith, or the unconscious mind matter more than logic

How Evidence-Based

freethought
3 7.5
rationalism
  • Formal
5 7.7
opinion
1.0
faith
729 2.3

Surface Forms

rationalism singular
rationalisms plural

Morphology

rationalism = rational (transparent) = rational + ism

The noun denotes a doctrine or system formed from the adjective 'rational' using the productive suffix '-ism', so the meaning is directly derived.

Etymology

Rationalism comes from the Latin ratio, which means 'reason' or 'calculation', plus the ending -ism, meaning a 'belief' or 'system'. So rationalism is the belief that 'reason' and clear thinking, like the math word ratio, are the main source of knowledge.