Presented for the Philosophy of Science class in Master of English Education, Yogyakarta State University

1. Classical and Modern Philosophy:
Rationalism and Empiricism
PRESENTED BY:
Meisela Hardianti (22216251071)
Feni Revianita (22216251072)
Elvira Afifah (22216251073)
Nur Rahma Kasim (22216251074)

2. Classical and Modern
Rationalism

3. Background
 In this chapter we would like to study about the figures of
rationalism in the classic and modern era.
 Forthe classic era,itwill be represented by Plato
 For the modern era,itwill be presented by Rene Descartes

4. Rationalism
Rationalism is a view that considers reason as the main source and test of
knowledge.
Rationalism is derived from the Latin word "ratio" which means "reason"
in English.

5. The main subjects of
Rationalism
1. Rationalism believes that through the process of abstract thinking ,we can
achieve the fundamental truth that cannot be denied.
2. Rationalism believes that some of the reality truth can be achieved without
empirical methodology.
3. Rationalism believes that thinking can know some truth about reality.
4. Rationalism believes that ratio is the main source of knowledge.
5. Rationalism believes that truth can not be examined through sense verification.
6. Rationalism believes that universe follows the role of systematical laws

6. Classical Era

7. Plato
Thinkers who influenced Plato:
1. Pythagoras: the eternity of soul, mysticism, mathematics
2. Parmenides: eternal reality, which Plato called the world of idea
3. Heracleitos: nothing is permanent in the physic life, the understanding of
empirical world is only Doxa (opinion) not episteme (the perfect knowledge)
4. Socrates: morality and the essence of life destination in the world

8. Plato was an Epistemology and Knowledge theory founder
He was admitted as one of the earliest figure to make question, “ What do we know?”,
“How do we know”? And “When is knowledge said true?”
Episteme has to meet two criterion :
1. Knowledge has to be certain
2. Knowledge has to be about perfect and eternal reality

9. The development of classical rationalism
based on Plato is as follows:

10.  Doxa (opinion) is the real object that can be a perception.
 Episteme (the true knowledge)is the object that is related to “that
is genuine” or “arkhai”.
Doxa and Episteme
10

11. 1. “Truth means only the shadow of images”
2. Relevantto the nowadays phenomenon:
 As a sharp critic to the life / shallow thinking
 Political life
 As a criticto the naïve realism point of view
 The need of figure that is free from shadow and illusion
The allegory of the cave
11

12. Modern Era

13. Rene Descartes
Descartes was admitted the modern figure of rationalism
Descartes had an idea to renew the philosophy and knowledge
Descartes recommends ratio as the source of knowledge than
empiric/body
1
3

14. Descartes’ View
1. View about God; as the religious person, he placed God as the highest
place, “unlimited and perfect power”.
2. Body and soul;he believed that body and soul are both real. every
substance (body-soul/ratio) has a specific different character.
. 12

15. Experience will only bring us tothe
“appearance”not totherealknowledge.
Descartes’3 innate ideas:
1. The idea of mind
2. The idea of God
3. The idea of (definite) body
15

16. Methodological Principles
1. Accepting only information you know to be true
2. Breaking down these truths into smaller units
3.Solving the simple problems first
4. Making complete lists of further problems
. 12

17. Methodological Skepticism
The dream
argument;
there is no sufficient
ground to believe
whether we are
dreaming or awake
Our experience is
might be controlled by
powerful evil demon

18. Descartes places the role of ratio, intuition, and
deductive reasoning in achieving the genuine
knowledge.

19. Classical and Modern
Empiricism

20. “ -Neither geometry nor logic will tell you
anything about the real world. There is
no magical way of going beyond the
limits of what we can see,hear
, taste,
smell, and touch-
Robinson Dave and Bill Mayblin,
2004:15

21. Meanings
● Empiricism is from the ancient Greek word empeiria/empeiros,
“experience.”
● Empiricism is the view that all concepts originate in experience, that all
concepts are about or applicable to things that can be experienced, or
that all rationally acceptable beliefs or propositions are justifiable or
knowable only through experience.

22. The main points of empiricism
1) Believe that the source of a knowledge is experience.
2) Very emphasizing on empirical-experimental method.
3) Using inductive reasoning.

23. Classical Era

24. Aristotle
According to aristotle what the mind thinks must be in it in
the same sense as letters are on a tablet (grammateion) which
bears no actual writing (grammenon); this is just what happens in
the case of the mind. Aristotle used an empiricism approach to
establish the foundations of science. It relies on the ability of the
senses, especially sight (eyes) and hearing (ears).

25. Aristotle’s
Empirical
Method
Empirical
Method
2.
Universal
Concept/
General Principle
1.
Perception /
Assumption
3.
Proof / Particular
Explanation
the world as a living organism,
which develops as an embryo
that leads to a specific purposes.

26. 29
Roger Bacon
He was the first one who clearly stated that
the needs of experience is very important to
develop a knowledge and how important
knowledge for an advancement

27. Francis Bacon
He can be considered an early Empiricist, through his popularization
of an inductive methodology for scientific inquiry, which has since
become known as the scientific method.
Bacon's experimental empirical method:
1. Observing
2. Measuring
3. Explaining
4. Verifying

28. Thomas and John Locke
Human being as atoms that move definitively (mechanically),
although mechanical law in humans is more complicated than
nature, so the calculation of it is more complicated.
John Locke, claimed that mind is a "Tabula rasa",
which literally means a blank slate, and empiricists
consider all people to be empty paper by birth. This paper
is written by experience and for empiricists, it is the only
way to learn.

29. 2 types of idea:
1. Idea that comes from external sensation
2. Idea that comes from internal sense or reflection
3 types of knowledge:
1. Intuitive knowledge
2. Demonstrative knowledge
3. Sensory knowledge

30. Modern Era

31. Meanings
The doctrine that all ideas and
categories are derived from sense
experience and that knowledge cannot
extend beyond experience, including
observation, experiment, and
induction.

32. Bishop George Barkeley
Our knowledge of physical objects must be related to our
thoughts (concepts, world views) and we cannot determine what
those objects are if we are separated from our views.

33. David Hume
All of human knowledge can be divided into two categories:
relations of ideas (e.g. propositions involving some contingent
observation of the world, such as "the sun rises in the East") and
matters of fact (e.g. mathematical and logical propositions), and
that ideas are derived from our "impressions" or sensations.

34. Perception
Impression
Simple
Impression
Complex
Impression
Simple
Ideas
Complex
Ideas
Ideas

35. Immanuel Kant
 German Philosopher in 18th Century (Enlightenment)
 Synthesized modern rationalism and Empiricism
 Significant influence today in metaphysics,
epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, and other
fields.
 Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 1787), the Critique of
Practical Reason (1788) and the Critique of the Power
of Judgement (1790)

37. But Kant thought that Hume's two
categories, true propositions were either
matters of fact or relations of ideas, were
inadequate.
Kant proposed the theory of transcendental
idealism and concluded that the extent of our
knowledge is determined in by both
empirical and rational principles.

39. Pragmatists believe…
1. Practical consequences
2. All of the ideas and theories in science be grounded in direct experience.
3. That no experience be excluded from the scientific purview.

40. Rationalism versus
Empiricism…
40

41. Thanks!
Any questions?
We will try our best to answer your question 