Comparative table of rationalism and

empiricism
RATIONALISM EMPIRICISM
Rene Descartes (1596-1650) David Hume
The source of our clear and The source of our strong and lively
distinct (evident) knowledge lies knowledge is experience
in reason
We know reality through ideas We know reality through perceptions
(subjectivity as the key to modern (impressions and ideas)
thought)
Affirmation of the existence of Denial of the existence of innate
innate ideas: self, infinity, ideas: our mind is a “tabula rasa”
perfection, causality.
Distrust of information from the Absolute trust in information from
senses the senses
Mathematics is the model of Physics as a model of the functioning
certain and evident knowledge. of the human mind. induction value
Value of intuition and deduction
Fundamental role of “intellectual Intuition understood as sensory
intuition” in the knowledge knowledge.
process
A certain and evident knowledge A “safe” or dogmatic knowledge of
of reality is possible (Metaphysics: reality is impossible: criticism of
I-thought, God-infinite and world- metaphysics as knowledge. Defense
extension) of skepticism and phenomenalism

Philosophical thoughts of Rene Descartes

René Descartes (1596-1650), French philosopher, scientist and mathematician,
sometimes considered the founder of modern philosophy. Son of a member of
the lower nobility and belonged to a family that had produced some learned
men. At the age of eight he was sent to the Jesuit school of La Flèche in
Anjou, where he remained for eight years. Along with the typical classical
studies, Descartes received teachings in mathematics and scholasticism, with
the purpose of guiding human reason to understand Christian doctrine.
Catholicism had a great influence on Descartes throughout his life. When he
finished his studies at school, he studied law at the University of Poitiers,
graduating in 1616. However, he never practiced the legal profession; In 1618
he entered the service of Prince Maurice I of Nassau-Orange, with the
intention of pursuing a military career. Descartes served in other armies, but
his interest was always focused on the problems of mathematics and
philosophy, to which he dedicated the rest of his life.
Descartes went on a pilgrimage to Italy from 1623 to 1624 and remained in
France from 1624 to 1628. In this period, he dedicated himself to the study of
philosophy and also carried out optics experiments. In 1628, after selling his
properties in France, he moved to Holland, where he lived in different cities,
Amsterdam, Deventer, Utrecht and Leiden.
It was perhaps during the first years of his residence in Holland that Descartes
wrote his first important work, Philosophical Essays, published in 1637. The
work is made up of four parts: an essay on geometry, another on optics, a third
on meteors and the last, the Discourse on Method, which described his
philosophical speculations. This was followed by other essays, including
Metaphysical Meditations (1641; revised 1642) and The Principles of
Philosophy, (1644). The last volume was dedicated to Princess Elizabeth
Stuart of Bohemia, who lived in the Netherlands and with whom Descartes
had established a deep friendship. In 1649 Descartes was invited to the court
of Christina of Sweden in Stockholm to give the queen classes in philosophy.
However, the rigors of the northern winter caused pneumonia in 1650, which
caused his death.

YOUR PHILOSOPHY
Descartes tried to apply the rational inductive procedures of science, and
specifically mathematics, to philosophy. Before shaping his method,
philosophy had been dominated by the scholastic method, which was based
entirely on comparing and contrasting the opinions of recognized authorities.
Rejecting this system, Descartes stated: "In our search for the direct path to
truth, we should not concern ourselves with objects of which we cannot
achieve a certainty similar to that of the demonstrations of arithmetic and
geometry." For this reason he determined not to believe any truth until he had
established the reasons for believing it. The only certain knowledge from
which he began his investigations was expressed in the famous sentence:
Cogito, ergo sum, "I think, therefore I am." Starting from the principle that the
clear consciousness of thought proves its own existence, he maintained the
existence of God. God, according to Descartes' philosophy, created two kinds
of substances that constitute the whole of reality. One class was the thinking
substance, or intelligence, and the other the extended, or physical substance.

REASON AND METHOD. YOUR UNIT

1. - UNITY OF KNOWLEDGE AND REASON

In the first of his rules for the direction of the spirit, Descartes states: "All the
various sciences are nothing other than human wisdom, which remains one
and identical, even when applied to diverse objects, and receives no further
distinction from them. than that which receives sunlight from the various
objects that it illuminates. The different sciences and the various knowledge
are, therefore, manifestations of a single knowledge.
This unitary conception of knowledge comes, ultimately, from a unitary
conception of reason. Wisdom is unique because reason is unique: the reason
that distinguishes the true from the false, the convenient from the
inconvenient, the reason that is applied to the theoretical knowledge of the
truth and the practical ordering of conduct, is one and the same. .

2. - THE STRUCTURE OF REASON AND THE METHOD

Since reason, intelligence, is unique, it is of great interest to know its structure
and functioning, in order to be able to apply it correctly, and in this way,
achieve true and useful knowledge.
There are two modes of knowledge, according to Descartes: intuition and
deduction. Intuition is a kind of "light or natural instinct" that has as its object
simple natures: through it we immediately grasp simple concepts emanating
from reason itself, without any possibility of doubt or error. Intuition is
defined by Descartes in the following way (Rule III): "A concept of the pure
and attentive mind, so easy and distinct that there is no doubt about what we
think; that is, a no doubt concept of the pure and attentive mind. attentive that
is born from the light of reason alone, and is more certain than deduction
itself".
All intellectual knowledge is deployed from the intuition of simple natures. In
fact, between some simple natures and others, connections appear that nature
discovers and explores through deduction. Deduction, no matter how long it
extends into long chains of reasoning, is ultimately nothing more than a
succession of intuitions of simple natures and the connections between them.
Since intuition and deduction constitute the internal and specific dynamism of
knowledge, this must be applied in a two-step process:
1. - Firstly, a process of analysis until we reach the simple elements or natures.
2. - Secondly, a process of synthesis, of deductive reconstruction of the
complex from the simple.
The second and third rules of the Discourse on Method refer to these
moments: "Divide each of the difficulties into as many parts as possible and
necessary to resolve them better" (second rule); and "Conduct my thoughts in
order, starting with the easiest and simplest objects to know to ascend little by
little, in steps, to the knowledge of the most complex; even assuming an order
among those that do not naturally precede each other." "(third rule).
This way of proceeding is therefore not arbitrary: it is the only method that
responds to the internal dynamics of a single reason. Until now, Descartes
thinks, reason has been used in this way only in the field of mathematics,
producing admirable results. Nothing prevents, however, its use from being
extended to all areas of knowledge, so that equally pleasant fruits can be
produced.

Philosophical thought of David Hume

David Hume is an English philosopher framed within empiricism and the
Enlightenment. Son of a wealthy family, Hume always had in mind to
dedicate himself to philosophy and to do so he traveled to France, where he
wrote his work Treatise of Human Nature. Later he would return to London
and then to Scotland, ending his days in Edinburgh, his hometown. During his
life Hume would have developed the naturalistic and skeptical aspects of
philosophy, and represents a great influence on some later authors.

Thought of David Hume – Hume's Philosophy

Hume's thought follows a methodical and rigorous process aimed at finding

out what we can know and what we cannot know, that is, to set limits on
knowledge. He is included in the empiricist movement of the 18th century,
which opposes rationalism and values knowledge that comes from the senses,
which will lead him to criticize metaphysics.

Knowledge according to Hume (Hume Epistemology)

In his process to delimit human knowledge, Hume begins by analyzing the

content of the mind, perceptions. Among them he distinguishes impressions
and ideas.

Impressions are sensations or immediate images of the reality that surrounds

us that come from experience, from the senses. Their main characteristic is
liveliness, that is, they are immediate.

Ideas are reflections on those impressions that are made in our mind, which
require the intervention of memory and which are not immediate. Distinguish
between simple ideas and complex ideas, which our mind has composed of
several simple ideas.

The knowledge we possess must come from an impression. If an idea is not

based on a previous impression, then it must be a product of our mind and we
cannot know it. In this way the limits to our knowledge are established.

Laws of association of ideas

Our imagination naturally and spontaneously carries out combinations of

ideas. These are.

Likeness. Our mind tends to associate ideas because of their similarity to each
other.
Contiguity in space time. When two ideas are close in space or time, our mind
shows a tendency to move from one to the other spontaneously.
Cause effect. It occurs between two events that occur in time, and between
them the mind assumes a necessary relationship by which one is the cause of
the other. This will be the foundation of his criticism of metaphysics.
The objects of knowledge: relationships of ideas and matters of fact

Relations of ideas are for Hume intuitive or demonstratively true statements.

They are abstract concepts such as the truths of mathematics or logic that our
mind understands intuitively as truths and that do not require experience for
their demonstration. The principle of contradiction can be applied to them and
determine whether they are true or false.
Matters of fact are concepts that come from experience, from our senses.
Therefore, they do not constitute absolute truths but rather very probable ones
and the principle of contradiction cannot be applied to them. It is equally valid
to say “the sun will rise tomorrow” and “the sun will not rise tomorrow.”
The critique of Hume's metaphysics

Hume will criticize metaphysics, especially because his ideas do not come
from impressions. Therefore, metaphysical concepts are beyond the limits of
knowledge and we cannot possess absolute knowledge about them.

Criticism of causality. Causality is understood as the necessary connection

between two phenomena A and B such that whenever the first of them occurs,
it necessarily triggers the second. Hume criticizes the idea of causality because
there is no impression of this connection.

Our mind has established the cause-effect relationship (causality) between two
phenomena that appear contiguous in space and time, and of which it has the
custom, the habit that its experience and memory dictate, that it has always
happened like this. In this way the mind mistakenly extracts the existence of a
necessary connection between the two phenomena without having an
impression of it and only basing it on custom.

The criticism of causality has a very great impact on science. The sciences,
and in general all questions of fact, are based on the principle of causality to
establish their conclusions, so now they cannot have absolute certainty. Now
the science is highly probable, but not completely certain. The fact that the sun
has risen regularly every morning until today does not make certain that it will
rise again tomorrow. A science is established that is now mutable, more open
and that allows criticism.
Criticism of the idea of the world. Hume criticizes the idea of the world
because he believes that even given the fact that we receive a series of
impressions, this cannot absolutely prove that there is an external world that
produces them in us.

Criticism of the idea of self: Hume does not accept the idea of the self or the
soul. According to him, there is no single self, this is just a set of impressions
that extend over time stored in our memory that we artificially join together to
form what we call self. Furthermore, the self is not an impression in itself, it is
a reference within the set of our impressions that we have become accustomed
to finding there.

Criticism of the idea of God. Hume criticizes the idea of God because there is
nothing in nature from which we could have obtained a true impression of
omniscience, of the absolute, of the infinite... He also discards the reasoning
of philosophers such as Aristotle or St. Thomas Aquinas of God as the first
cause, since he rejects the principle of causality. This will lead Hume to
declare himself an agnostic and to affirm that we cannot have knowledge of
Him.