A Dictionary of Philosophy, Third Edition
. Any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification. Reason can be contrasted with revelation, in religion, or with emotion and feeling as in ethics, but in philosophy it is usually contrasted with the senses (including introspection, but not intuitions). ‘Rationalist’ is to ‘A PRIORI’ somewhat as ‘EMPIRICIST’ is to ‘empirical’, though the empiricist is more likely to apply his view to all knowledge. Rationalism is an outlook which somehow emphasizes the a priori and also the INNATE. ‘Rationalist’ has a variety of interpretations corresponding to those of ‘empiricist’. A philosopher can be both rationalist and empiricist, in different though important respects (e.g. Kant); but such philosophers are often thought to be best classified as neither.
‘Continental rationalists’ is a traditional label for Descartes, Spinoza and Leibniz, with various lesser figures of that period who are regarded as sharing their general outlook.
*J.Cottingham, The Rationalists, Oxford UP, 1988.
D.W.Hamlyn, The Theory of Knowledge, Macmillan, 1970. (Chapter 2 briefly discusses basis of rationalism as it appears in Descartes, Leibniz and Bradley (and then discusses empiricism).)
W.von Leyden, Seventeenth-Century Metaphysics, Duckworth, 1968. (Chapter 3 has general introduction to rationalism and empiricism.)
A.O.Lovejoy, The Great Chain of Being, Harvard UP, 1936; Harper and Row, 1960. (Chapter 5 brings out some features and conflicts of some developed rationalist philosophies (Leibniz and Spinoza). See also A PRIORI, EMPIRICIST.)
*J.Lyons, Chomsky, Fontana, 1970, expended, 1977. (Elementary introduction to influential thinker who has revived some rationalist ideas in the sphere of language-learning.)
G.Ryle (see bibliography to EPISTEMOLOGY (second Ryle item)).
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