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René Descartes (/ d eɪ ˈ k ɑːr t / day-KART, also UK: / ˈ d eɪ k ɑːr t / DAY-kart; French: [ʁəne dekaʁt] ⓘ; [note 3] [11] 31 March 1596 – 11 February 1650) [12] [13]: 58 was a French philosopher, scientist, and mathematician, widely considered a seminal figure in the emergence of modern philosophy and science.
In philosophy and in its current sense, rationalism is a line of thought that appeals to reason or the intellect as a primary or fundamental source of knowledge or justification". [1] It is typically contrasted with empiricism , which appeals to sensory experience as a primary or fundamental source of knowledge or justification. [ 2 ]
Rationalism has a philosophical history dating from antiquity.The analytical nature of much of philosophical enquiry, the awareness of apparently a priori domains of knowledge such as mathematics, combined with the emphasis of obtaining knowledge through the use of rational faculties (commonly rejecting, for example, direct revelation) have made rationalist themes very prevalent in the history ...
Descartes is considered the founder of rationalism and gave the illustration cogito ergo sum as the paradigm to demonstrate what he believed. The problem of both these appeals is that: Intellectualism is "too wide" by letting too much in (basically everything, in a strict sense).
The wax argument or the sheet of wax example is a thought experiment that René Descartes created in the second of his Meditations on First Philosophy.He devised it to analyze what properties are essential for bodies, show how uncertain our knowledge of the world is compared to our knowledge of our minds, and argue for rationalism.
Bacon's empiricism and Descartes' rationalist philosophy laid the foundation for enlightenment thinking. [21] Descartes' attempt to construct the sciences on a secure metaphysical foundation was not as successful as his method of doubt applied to philosophy, which led to a dualistic doctrine of mind and matter.
Descartes used various rationalist principles, particularly the focus on deductive reasoning, to build a comprehensive philosophical system upon this foundation. His philosophy is rooted in substance dualism , positing that the mind and body are distinct, independent entities that coexist.
Descartes uses the analogy of rebuilding a house from secure foundations, and extends the analogy to the idea of needing a temporary abode while his own house is being rebuilt. Descartes adopts the following "three or four" maxims in order to remain effective in the "real world" while experimenting with his method of radical doubt.