Rationalism

Rationalism is a philosophic orientation that claims existence of knowledge that ultimately has been created from some non-sensory source and that such knowledge is applicable in the world.

The term rationalism probably was created from that their early advocates referred to that reason was the most reliable guardian in a world full of superstition and various belief systems.

An when compared to mystics, rationalists comes closer to "reality" than e.g. fortune-tellers and witch-believers.

An extreme rationalist would claim that all knowledge is acquired through some method that does not include perception. It would then die within a week, e.g. because it would not have been drinking.

A conclusion about the importance of water for our survival cannot be based on reasoning only. It must ultimately be based on perception e.g. from that it became more alert after drinking water.

A rationalist may use an a priori argument as a starting point, hypothesis or assumed premise, and claim that it does not need to be motivated from perception. It is sufficient to claim that it is formed by e.g. intuition, transcendental knowledge, prophecy, revelation from a higher being, or simply that some authority said so.

Serious rationalists search premises that may be "absolutely certain" or a priori. From such premises they want to create arguments through analysis.

Less serious writers may start from a subjectively suitable statement that is not even clearly defined.

The credibility of the conclusions from such discussions becomes, as always, comparable with the credibility of the premises.

Not rational founding thesis

Epistemologists within the field of balanced rationalism claim that it, in addition to probability arguments, also exists knowledge that has been ultimately created from some type of non-sensory source. Such arguments are called "given" or a priori.

This is in opposition to what is told by reason (ratio) and parts of rationalism is quite close to idealism [see e.g. Guyer].