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RATIONALISM (from Lat. rationalis, pe...

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 917 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RATIONALISM (from See also:Lat. rationalis, pertaining to See also:reason, ratio) , a See also:term employed both in See also:philosophy and in See also:theology for any See also:system which sets up human reason as the final criterion and See also:chief source of knowledge. Such systems are opposed to all doctrines which See also:rest solely or ultimately upon See also:external authority; the individual must investigate everything for himself and abandon any position the validity of which cannot be rationally demonstrated. The rationalist spirit is, of course, coeval with human See also:evolution; See also:religion itself began with a rational See also:attempt to maintain amicable relations with unknown See also:powers, and each one of the dead religions succumbed before the development of rationalist inquiry into its premises. But the term has acquired more See also:special connotations in See also:modern thought. In its commonest use it is applied to all who decline to accept the authority of the See also:Bible as the infallible See also:record of a divine See also:revelation, and is practically synonymous with See also:free-thinking. This type of rationalism is based largely upon the results of modern See also:historical and archaeological investigation. The See also:story of the Creation in the See also:book of See also:Genesis is shown, from the point of view of See also:chronology, to be a poetic or symbolic See also:account by the See also:discovery of civilizations of much greater antiquity. Again, the study of See also:comparative religion (e. g. the study of the See also:Deluge (q.v.), showing as it does that similar stories are to be found in See also:primitive literature, both See also:oriental and other) has placed the Bible in See also:close relation with other See also:ancient literature. The Bible, especially the Old Testament, is thus regarded even by orthodox Christians from a rationalist standpoint, The See also:African See also:Ratel (Mellivora ratel). very different from that of the See also:early and See also:medieval See also:Church. Rationalism within the See also:Christian Church differs, however, from that which is commonly understood by the term, inasmuch as it accepts as revealed the fundamental facts of its creed. Thoroughgoing rationalism, on the other See also:hand, either categorically denies that the supernatural or the See also:infinite—whether it exist or not—can be the See also:object of human know-ledge (see See also:AGNOSTICISM), or else, in the mouth of a single See also:person, states that he at least has no such knowledge.

In addition to the difficulties presented by the Bible as an historical record, and the See also:

literary problems which textual and other critics have investigated, the modern freethinker denies that the See also:Christianity of the New Testament or its See also:interpretation by modern theologians affords a coherent theory of human See also:life and See also:duty. Apart from the See also:general use of the term for a particular attitude towards religion, two more technical uses require See also:notice: (i) the purely philosophical, (ii) the theological. (i) Philosophical rationalism is that theory of knowledge which maintains that reason is in and by itself a source of knowledge, and that knowledge so derived has See also:superior authority over knowledge acquired through sensation. This view is opposed to the various systems which regard the mind as a tabula rasa (See also:blank tablet) in which the outside See also:world as it were imprints itself through the senses. The opposition between rationalism and See also:sensationalism is, however, rarely so See also:simple and See also:direct, inasmuch as many thinkers (e.g. See also:Locke) have admitted both sensation and reflection. Such philosophies are called rationalist or sensationalist according as they See also:lay emphasis specially on the See also:function of reason or that of the senses. More generally, philosophic rationalism is opposed to empirical theories of knowledge, inasmuch as it regards all true know-ledge as deriving deductively from fundamental elementary concepts. This attitude may be studied in See also:Descartes, See also:Leibnitz and See also:Wolff. It is based on Descartes' fundamental principle that knowledge must be clear, and seeks to give to philosophy the certainty and See also:demonstrative See also:character of See also:mathematics, from the a priori principle of which all its claims are derived. The attack made by See also:David See also:Hume on the causal relation led directly to the new rationalism of See also:Kant, who argued that it was wrong to regard thought as See also:mere See also:analysis. A priori concepts there are, but if they are to See also:lead to the amplification of knowledge, they must be brought into relation with empirical data.

(ii) The term " rationalism " in the narrow theological sense is specially used of the doctrines held by a school of See also:

German theologians and Biblical scholars which was prominent roughly between 1740 and 1836. This rationalism within the Church was a theological manifestation of the intellectual See also:movement known as the Enlightenment (Aufkldrung), and must be studied in close connexion with the purely philosophical rationalism already discussed. It owed much to the See also:English deists, to the Pietistic movement, and to the See also:French esprits forts who had already made a vigorous attack on the super-natural origin of the Scriptures. The crux of the difficulty was the See also:doctrine of the supernatural, the relation between revealed and. natural religion. The first See also:great rationalist See also:leader was J. S. See also:Semler (q.v.), who held that true religion springs from the individual soul, and attacked the authority of the Bible in a comprehensive spirit of See also:criticism. He ultimately reached a point at which the Bible became for him simply one of many ancient documents. At the same See also:time he did not impugn the authority of the Church, which he regarded as useful in maintaining external unity. Among those who followed in Semler's path were See also:Gruner See also:Ernesti, J. D. See also:Michaelis, See also:Griesbach, J.

G. See also:

Eichhorn. This spirit was exhibited on the philosophical See also:side by Kant who in his See also:Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft (1793) set forth his doctrine of rational morality (Vernunftglauben) as the only true religion. These two great rationalist movements, the See also:critical and the philosophical, ultimately led to, or were accompanied by, the See also:gradual reduction of religion to a system of morals based at the most on two or three fundamental religious principles. This is therationalism known as rationalismus vulgaris, the See also:period of which is practically from 1800 to 1833. Among its exponents were See also:Wegscheider, See also:Bretschneider and H. E. G. See also:Paulus (qq.v.). The general attitude of German theology, however, became gradually more and more hostile, and the See also:works- of See also:Schleiermacher, though in a sense themselves rationalist, renewed the general See also:desire for a See also:positive Christianity. See also:Hase's Hutterus Redivivus, an exposition of orthodoxy in the See also:light of modern development, called forth a final exposition of the rationalist position by Rohr. From that time the school as such ceased to have a real existence, though the results of its See also:work are traceable more or less in all modern Biblical criticism, and its See also:influence upon the attitude of modern ,theologians and Biblical critics can scarcely be overestimated.

See Standlin, Geschichte See also:

des Rationalismus (See also:Gottingen, 1826) ; Hase, Theologische Streitschriften in Gesammelte Werke, viii. (1892); See also:Ruckert, Der Rationalismus (1859) ; See also:Tholuck, Vorgeschichte des See also:Rat. (1853–1861) and Geschichte des Rat. (1865); See also:Ritschl, See also:Christ. Lehre von der Recktfertigung, &c. (187o), vol. i.; Benn, See also:History of Rationalism (1906). See also histories of philosophy and theology in the 19th See also:century, and the valuable See also:article s.v. by O. Kim in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyk. xvi. (1905).

End of Article: RATIONALISM (from Lat. rationalis, pertaining to reason, ratio)

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