Rationalists argue that most of their knowledge does not come from experience; it depends on our own mental systems. They believe we can gain knowledge by looking into our minds without observing or experiencing the world. A very important key to the rationalist argument is mathematics, also known as the realm of knowledge. The knowledge of mathematics is attained by reason only. For example, a mathematician can discover new, exciting theorems in their own minds without stepping foot outside and experiencing the world. Rationalists also believe in innate ideas. Innate ideas are truths and ideas that your mind knows from birth without relying on outside senses. Rationalists that believed in innate ideas included: Plato, Descartes, Leibniz, and Jain Philosophers. Leibniz was not willing to agree that innate ideas are …show more content…
Kant has a compromised view of both rationalism and empiricism. He argues that senses are the root of the sensations that your mind will then arrange into the world we experience. But there has to be a system or way these senses are organized; therefore, reason or the mind adds to our knowledge. Another key reason for the mind to have structure or reason, is that our sense can give us smells, tastes, and shapes but it cannot show us the relationships of objects. The mind has to contribute to our knowledge because we need to show that objects are related to each