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The difference between rationalism and empiricism.

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What is the difference between rationalism and empiricism? how do Decartes' and Berkeley's theories of knowledge reflect the rationalist approach and empiricist approach? How do each of them try to answer the argument from illusion?

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What is the difference between rationalism and empiricism? how do Decartes' and Berkeley's theories of knowledge reflect the rationalist approach and empiricist approach? How does each of them try to answer the argument from illusion?

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Empiricism is the theory that knowledge flows from experience only. The sole source of knowledge for the empiricist is therefore experience and no knowledge is possible independent of experience. Empiricism denies that knowledge can be obtained apriori, that is, before experience; it denies innate knowledge and necessary truths. Radical empiricism as in Hume, postulates that experience is the final criterion of knowledge and reality.

For George Berkeley, to be is to be perceived: esse est percipi. Berkeley argued that nothing can exist unless it is perceived by some mind. The source of knowledge is therefore not strictly the material objects but the ideas in our minds. And God, according to Berkeley, is the source of those ideas in our minds. So ...

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