Rationalism & Scholasticism – Graduate Philosophy Lecture

Vocabulary flashcards summarizing key terms, thinkers, and concepts from the lecture on Rationalism and Scholasticism.

Rationalism

Philosophical view that reason alone can deduce truths about reality; concepts are innate and knowledge is essentially deductive.

Scholasticism

Medieval Christian intellectual tradition that used dialectical reasoning to integrate faith and reason and explain doctrine.

René Descartes

‘Father of Rationalism’ who introduced the Cartesian method and the famous cogito argument in Discourse on the Method (1637).

Cogito, ergo sum

Cartesian principle meaning “I think, therefore I am,” establishing the thinking self as the first indubitable truth.

Baruch Spinoza

Dutch rationalist who linked reason with passions, treating emotions as ideas understood by reason.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

German polymath who advanced differential calculus, the binary system, and the Principle of Sufficient Reason.

Principle of Sufficient Reason

Leibniz’s claim that every fact or event has an adequate explanation or cause.

Innate Ideas

Rationalist notion that certain fundamental concepts exist in the mind prior to sensory experience.

Deductive Knowledge

Knowledge gained by logically deriving conclusions from self-evident premises rather than from the senses.

Ayn Rand’s Rational Man

View that a truly rational person is guided by reason, not by feelings or desires (paraphrased from Rand’s quote).

Saint Thomas Aquinas

Major scholastic thinker who synthesized Aristotelian philosophy with Christian theology in the Summa Theologica.

Anselm of Canterbury

Early scholastic who formulated the ontological argument for God’s existence.

Albert the Great

Scholastic scholar noted for commentaries on Aristotle and mentoring Thomas Aquinas.

William of Ockham

Scholastic philosopher famous for ‘Ockham’s Razor,’ advocating simplicity in explanations.

Dialectic Method

Scholastic technique of structured questioning and disputation to clarify and defend theological positions.

Faith and Reason

Central scholastic concern aiming to harmonize religious belief with rational inquiry.

Influence of Scholasticism

Shaped medieval universities, refined Aristotelian cosmology, and laid groundwork for later philosophy and political thought.

Binary System

Base-2 numeral system popularized by Leibniz; foundational for modern computer programming.

Differential Calculus

Mathematical discipline co-developed by Leibniz for analyzing change and motion.

Cartesian Modernity

Intellectual era initiated by Descartes that shifted the basis of knowledge from authority to individual reason.