Epistemology

Epistemology is the philosophical study of human knowledge. Early epistemological theories date back to ancient Greece, and several different schools of thought have emerged since then.

Rationalism

Rationalism is an epistemological school of thought which argues that humans are born with innate reason and knowledge (Markie & Folescu, 2021). Rationalists incorporate the Innate Knowledge and Innate Concept theses into their beliefs. The Innate Knowledge thesis states that humans do not rely on experience to gain knowledge, as they already possess it. For example, babies know how to breastfeed without any learning. The Innate Concept thesis states, “Humans have some of the concepts they employ in a particular subject area as part of their rational nature”(Markie & Folescu, 2021). Rationalists consider the human understanding of mathematical concepts as a prime example of this. Teaching mathematical concepts in school does not necessarily provide humans with this knowledge, but instead, brings innate mathematical reasoning forward.

Plato (~425-348 BCE)

The development of these theses is rooted in the ideas of Plato, an ancient Athenian philosopher. Plato believed that children are born with innate knowledge (Rutherford, 2019). For example, children would be able to recognize animals they have never seen before. In his writings in Republic, Plato argued that senses are untrustworthy, and that information captured by the senses does not provide humans with true reality (“Plato”, n.d.). To have knowledge, humans must look past the ever-changing information that the senses provide, and rely on ​​innate unchanging principles that reside within them (Daniel, n.d.).

René Descartes (1596-1650)

French philosopher Descartes is considered the founder of modern rationalism (McLean, n.d.). He rejected the idea that senses are completely accurate and the only form of knowledge in Meditations. Descartes believed that reason is the only reliable form of knowledge. He offers mathematics as an example, claiming that being able to understand abstract math concepts without necessarily having experience with them is due to innate knowledge.

Descartes was a dualist, meaning he believed that the immortal soul and the mortal body interact as two separate entities, and that the soul is responsible for thinking. His famous saying, “I think, therefore I am”, reflects that in order for a person to be able to think, then the thinker must exist.

Empiricism

Empiricism determines that humans are malleable creatures, whose knowledge is influenced by experience (Markie & Folescu, 2021). Empiricists reject the rationalist view of experience in its relation to knowledge. While rationalists argue that knowledge is innate, but can be triggered by experience, empiricists counter that experience is the source of knowledge. An empiricist, therefore, believes that humans are bound by their senses on the journey to acquire knowledge, and there is no innate power that allows humans to understand phenomena.

Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

Aristotle, Plato’s student, countered his teacher’s beliefs on knowledge acquisition (Dawes, 2017). He argued that humans are not born with innate knowledge, rather knowledge is gained through experiencing the environment with the five senses. Aristotle’s views are similar to what is called “inductive reasoning” today, as inductions can only be made from what is observed in the environment. Although Aristotle contributed ideas to both empiricist and rationalist schools of thought, he laid the foundations of sense theory. 

John Locke (1632-1704)

John Locke, a seventeenth-century British philosopher, founded the school of empiricism. In his 1690 text, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, he claimed that humans are a tabula rasa, a “blank sheet” born without any knowledge whatsoever (Schultz & Schultz, 2016). Locke rejected rationalist ideas of innate knowledge and gave an example against this idea by stating that if knowledge was truly innate, children would articulate “innate” ideas that adults have, which they do not (Locke, 1689). Instead, Locke claimed that knowledge is acquired through experience, which is gained through either sensation or reflection (Johne Locke, n.d.). Sensation is the information gained by the five external senses, while reflection is when an individual reflects on the inner workings of their mind. Through experience, the mind passively gains simple ideas, and through the active combination of simple ideas, complex ideas are formed. 

References

Daniel, S. H. (n.d.). Rationalist Epistemology: Plato. Plato notes. Retrieved from http://people.tamu.edu/~sdaniel/Notes/plato.html#:~:text=Knowledge%20for%20the%20rationalist%20is,or%20are%20true%20by%20definition.&text=This%20knowledge%20is%20called%20a,an%20example%20of%20a%20rationalist.

Dawes, G. W. (2017, September 27). Ancient and medieval empiricism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/empiricism-ancient-medieval/#:~:text=Aristotle%20can%20be%20classed%20as,later%20medical%20writers%20and%20sceptics.

John Locke (Stanford encyclopedia of philosophy). (n.d.). Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke/#KnowProb

Markie, P., & Folescu, M. (2021, September 2). Rationalism vs. empiricism. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Retrieved from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/rationalism-empiricism/#Rati

McLean, J. (n.d.). Rationalism | History of Western Civilization II. Lumen Learning – Simple Book Production. Retrieved from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldhistory2/chapter/rationalism/#:~:text=Descartes%20was%20the%20first%20of,aided%20by%20the%20scientific%20method.

Plato (430-347 B.C.) – information technology | Drexel … (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2022, from http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~cp28/plato.htm

Rutherford, M. D. (2019). Developmental psychology: An evolutionary perspective (4th ed.). Exelixis Press.

Schultz, D., & Schultz, S. (2016). A history of modern psychology. Cengage Learning.

Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)

Immanuel Kant is one of the most prominent figures in Western philosophy. His vast knowledge and insight into various topics made him one of the most influential philosophers of the Enlightenment period, as he changed the perspectives of several schools of thought.

Kant was born in Königsberg, Prussia (modern-day Russia), to an artisan family. He attended the University of Königsberg, where he was exposed to philosophy (Rohlf, 2010). After completing his studies in 1746, he became a tutor outside of Königsberg, but in 1755, he returned and remained at the university as a lecturer. During his time at the university, Kant presented groundbreaking work in various fields, such as metaphysics, math and physics. One of his most influential endeavours was to integrate the views on epistemology from both empiricists and rationalist perspectives (A Brief Summary, n.d.).In the Critique of Pure Reason (1781), Kant agreed with the empiricists that knowledge requires experience, however, he also agreed with the rationalists that experience alone is not enough to constitute knowledge. Therefore, although experience triggers the acquirement of knowledge and without experience there is no knowledge, there must be a way for the information to be organized in the mind. Through the combination of empiricist and rationalist theories, Kant reshaped the views on epistemology in philosophy, with this influence still prevalent today.

Kant believed the mind played an active role in learning. When the mind receives information from the environment, it constructs the experience from the information it receives (Immanuel Kant, 2022). Therefore, Kant stated that human perception is subjective, as it uses innate categories of the mind to organize the incoming information from the environment (A Brief Summary, n.d.). Kant stated that all human beings have the same twelve categories and that such categories prevent us from knowing the world as it “really is”.

References

A Brief Summary of Immanuel Kant’s Psychology. (n.d.). http://apps.lonestar.edu/blogs/mwhitten/files/2009/11/kantepistemology.pdf

Rohlf, M. (2010). Immanuel Kant. Plato.stanford.edu. https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/kant/?rid=903123293s840c38#LifWor

Further Reading

Manfred Kuehn. (2002). Kant : a biography. Cambridge University Press.