Rationalism

Rationalism holds that some knowledge exists independently of sensory experience. The mind isn’t a blank page—it arrives equipped with innate ideas, structures, or capacities that shape understanding from the start.

Abstract concepts like mathematics, logic, and causality don’t emerge from observation alone. They’re accessed through reason itself. The senses inform, but they can also deceive; rational thought is what cuts through to truth.

Rationalism stands opposite to radical empiricism, which insists all knowledge flows from sensory experience. It also diverges from Kant’s synthesis, where mind and experience collaborate. For rationalists, the deepest truths aren’t found in the world—they’re already within, waiting to be uncovered.