The debate between Rationalism and Empiricism is a debate about where our ideas are derived from. Rationalists believe that some of our ideas are innate, meaning that we are born having certain ideas, and other ideas come from experience. Empiricists believe that all of our ideas are derived from experience. I have to agree with Empiricism, I believe that we gain knowledge through experience and we are not born with certain knowledge. We see in our world good and bad ideas, no one is born with these ideas but rather they learn it from the people around them. If ones family has bad ideas it’s more likely that they will also carry on these bad ideas because they learned from their family to have that idea. No one is born having the bad ideas but rather they learn it from others.
A great example of Empiricism is Descartes’ wax theory. If someone saw a solid piece of wax and then you later saw a puddle of melted wax they wouldn’t know that it is the same substance because it looks different. They wouldn’t have the idea of wax in their mind and would believe that the substance is different. The only way they could learn the idea of the wax would be if someone showed them a solid piece of wax melting and becoming a liquid. Then they would be able to realize that the substance is the same and when a solid piece of wax is melted it becomes a liquid.
Explanatory breadth- Empiricism states that we gain knowledge and ideas from our experiences and that we aren’t born with them, while rationalism states that we are born with some ideas. Rationalism doesn’t explain what ideas are innate.
Explanatory depth- Empiricism goes more in depth than Rationalism. Empiricism explains why we need to experience something to gain knowledge and ideas about it while Rationalism doesn’t explain what ideas and knowledge we are born with.
Simplicity-Empiricism is more simple to understand because it states that we gain knowledge from experience and can be proven and told, while rationalism doesn’t explain what we are born knowing.
Conservatism- Empiricism and Rationalism are both consistent with our beliefs today. Some people believe that there are some idea that we are born knowing and others believe that we aren’t born with ideas or knowledge but rather we learn them from our experiences. People in our society believe in both rationalism and Empiricism today.
1) Empiricism and Rationalism are the most plausible explanations of the origin of ideas
2) Empiricism has much more explanatory breadth, depth, and simplicity, whereas Rationalism and Empiricism have an equal amount of conservatism.
Although I do agree with your argument regarding empiricism being a more plausible origin of ideas I do not feel as if you have included strong enough arguments to back up your claim. I think especially for explanatory breadth since that is to see which argument explains the origin of more ideas. For example how empiricism may guarantee more ideas since experiences occur more often making more ideas able while not everyone is born the same making certain peoples innate ideas different and controversial.
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