Rationalism - Introduction - 11th of February, 2011
- The real meaning of 'philosophy' is the study of
being or mind. Buddhism teaches about previous, present and future
life. Christianity teaches only the present and future life, and
what was before life is God. Christianity believes, that after
death one can go to heaven. Thus religions teach about life.
Buddhism teaches especially about previous lives – what happens
now is related to what we have done in the past – thus present and
past lives are connected. In Christianity it is not so, there is no
acceptance of past life.
- Rationalism believes, that experience that we get
through our senses is incorrect. The way to get correct knowledge is
thinking, rationalism. Like with a crane – one time crane stands
on one leg, but it can stand on two legs as well – one may wonder
which one is true and which one is false. However, we have to accept
both as correct.
- In medieval West the philosophers believed that
what cannot be explained by wisdom or evidence can be proved by
existence of God – thus a 'God concept' was used. However, there
was hidden knowledge, truth (sacca).
When there is no possibility to believe a truth, it can be called
'hidden knowledge'.
- In the
Buddha's
time people believed, that world arose from 'asat'
(non-existence). But the question was how an existing world can
appear from non-existence (asat).
Thus from asat
(non-existence)
had to arise sat
(existence). However, sat
should arise from sat.
People who tried to argue this way can be called 'takkivīmaṃsī',
'those who are arguing and questioning'.
- In
the Buddha's
time also some people believed, that after death one is extinguished
into non-existence, while others believed that one would be reborn
according to God.
- Buddhism
cannot be accepted as a rationalistic view, because Buddhism accepts
knowledge that comes through five senses (which is not accepted by
Rationalism).
In western philosophy, rational thinking is very popular among philosophers. In Greek period, Plato and Aristotle were rationalists and they were mathematicians also (though Socrates was also a famous philosopher from that time, he was not a rationalist). Mathematics is based on logical reason. In maths everything is based on examining – thus they emphasize that the only way to get correct knowledge in rational thinking. Rationalist philosophers can be classified under two major groups:
- Early rational philosophers
-
Modern
rational philosophers
-
Traditional
philosophers don't like to change their view, while modern
philosophers try to find mistakes and change the previous ideas.
Other important idea of rationalism is necessity. Example – students have to work hard to get through their exams. Here passing the exam is empirical necessity, while hard work is the rational necessity.
- Empirical necessity is that what is necessarily needed – to pass exam is the thing we need to do. However, for passing exam we must work hard – working hard itself is not needed, but it is an unavoidable requirement for fulfilling the aim – passing the examination. Thus the empirical (visible) necessity is passing the exam while the rational (logical) necessity is working hard (studying).
The aim of rationalism is rather finding the logical necessity than the empirical necessity, because logical necessity always helps to find a solution for metaphysical and moral problems.
Innate Idea According to modern rationalists some ideas are present since birth. Those ideas do not require any suggestion. As an example, hunger and sower(?). According to Descartes some ideas exist from the day of birth of a person. Such ideas do not require any sense experience - they are inborn ideas - Descartes argued that idea of the existence of the God is also innate.