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Compare Hume's Empiricism & Descartes Rationalism What is a Rationalist and what is an Empiricist? We can answer this question on a number of levels, some of which highlight just how much these two traditions have in common, some of which emphasise their opposition. The Rationalist believes that some or all of what is true knowledge is literally inborn with us; the Empiricist believes the opposite: all of our knowledge arises from our perceptual experiences in the world after we are born. The name Rationalism obviously derives from the word 'rational' which itself goes back to the Latin, 'ratio' meaning 'calculation'. This in turn goes back to another Latin word, 'ratus', which is the past participle of 'reor', meaning "think', 'deem', 'judge'. What runs through all of these is the emphasis on mind, an emphasis connected with the word 'rational' as well: rationalise, rationality, and so on. 'Empiricism' derives from...

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