word
rationalism
RASH-uh-nuh-liz-um
ˈræʃənəlɪzəmListen
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Syllable breakdown
rationalism
Dictionary meaning
the epistemological position that reason and innate ideas are primary or superior sources of knowledge, independent of and prior to sensory experience; continental rationalists Descartes, Leibniz, and Spinoza held that certain fundamental truths including mathematics and logical necessities can be known a priori through the exercise of pure reason; in the philosophy of science, rationalism is associated with the view that theoretical reasoning and mathematical structure guide discovery beyond what observation alone could provide
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