Today in my wonderful history of psychology class we discussed empiricism and rationalism with regards to being a way of knowing. It was really interesting to me and I felt like my mind was blown at least a few times. This isn't nearly as in depth as it was in class but basically:
Empiricists believe that we experience things through our senses and that is how we gain a knowledge of them. We are born as a blank slate and everything that we learn is taught to us by those around us. Our senses help us learn and that's part of the reason why babies always touch things and put them in their mouths because they are trying to learn using their senses.
Rationalists are rational about everything (who woulda thunk it?). They say that as humans we are born with certain categories that are established in our minds, like color or cause & effect, things like that, and as we go through our life we fit things into those specific categories so we know what they are.
What do you think?
I think, like I do with most social/psychological theory, that it's a combination. My beliefs won't let me believe that we come to exist as complete blank slates, but I don't think we are totally programed either :)
ReplyDeleteThat's what my class agreed on, and our teacher told us that we are good psychologists because combining is what psychologists do all the time (like the whole nature vs. nurture idea). So I agree with you and I'm totally okay with that.
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