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rationalism |
Also found in: Legal, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, Hutchinson | 0.01 sec. |
rationalism [ˈræʃənəˌlɪzəm] n 1. reliance on reason rather than intuition to justify one's beliefs or actions 2. (Philosophy) Philosophy a. the doctrine that knowledge about reality can be obtained by reason alone without recourse to experience b. the doctrine that human knowledge can all be encompassed within a single, usually deductive, system c. the school of philosophy initiated by René Descartes, the French philosopher and mathematician (1596-1650), which held both the above doctrines 3. the belief that knowledge and truth are ascertained by rational thought and not by divine or supernatural revelation rationalist n rationalistic adj rationalistically adv rationalism 1. the doctrine that knowledge is gained only through the reason, a faculty independent of experience. See also: Philosophy
2. the doctrine that all knowledge is expressible in self-evident propositions or their consequences. — rationalist, n. — rationalistic, adj. ThesaurusLegend: Synonyms Related Words Antonyms
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I, for instance, would not be in the least surprised if all of a sudden, a propos of nothing, in the midst of general prosperity a gentleman with an ignoble, or rather with a reactionary and ironical, countenance were to arise and, putting his arms akimbo, say to us all: "I say, gentleman, hadn't we better kick over the whole show and scatter rationalism to the winds, simply to send these logarithms to the devil, and to enable us to live once more at our own sweet foolish will His 'History of Rationalism in Europe,' for example, is a very fine monument of the most thorough research and most effective statement; but to a mature mind its interest is equally conspicuous. Simon's rationalism, I still affirm that Becker was only partly present. |
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