rationalism
Americannoun
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the principle or habit of accepting reason as the supreme authority in matters of opinion, belief, or conduct.
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Philosophy.
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the doctrine that reason alone is a source of knowledge and is independent of experience.
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(in the philosophies of Descartes, Spinoza, etc.) the doctrine that all knowledge is expressible in self-evident propositions or their consequences.
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Theology. the doctrine that human reason, unaided by divine revelation, is an adequate or the sole guide to all attainable religious truth.
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Architecture.
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a design movement principally of the mid-19th century that emphasized the development of modern ornament integrated with structure and the decorative use of materials and textures rather than as added adornment.
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the doctrines and practices of this movement.
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noun
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reliance on reason rather than intuition to justify one's beliefs or actions
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philosophy
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the doctrine that knowledge about reality can be obtained by reason alone without recourse to experience
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the doctrine that human knowledge can all be encompassed within a single, usually deductive, system
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the school of philosophy initiated by Descartes which held both the above doctrines
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the belief that knowledge and truth are ascertained by rational thought and not by divine or supernatural revelation
Other Word Forms
- antirationalism noun
- antirationalist noun
- antirationalistic adjective
- nonrationalism noun
- nonrationalist noun
- nonrationalistic adjective
- nonrationalistical adjective
- nonrationalistically adverb
- rationalist noun
- rationalistic adjective
- rationalistical adjective
- rationalistically adverb
Etymology
Origin of rationalism
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“You’re supposed to speak of it certain ways. It’s not subject to Enlightenment rationalism. It’s to be inhabited. They’re trying to keep it from being reduced to human logic.”
From Washington Post
While national scientific communities may have distinctively different characteristics—British empiricism, French rationalism and American pragmatism come to mind—the end products are almost universally agreed upon once scientists in a given discipline attain consensus.
From Scientific American
We revelled in the swashbuckling idealism of Captain James Tiberius Kirk and the cool rationalism of Mr. Spock.
From The New Yorker
Capitalism was forged from the Enlightenment; driven by science, liberalism and rationalism, capitalism found its power and became the dominant economic system on the planet.
From Salon
Its often pure abstraction has the single focus of parts of the old MoMA but filtered through an entirely different sensibility, one whose restraint and rationalism often reflects the influence of European geometric art.
From New York Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
