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Early Modern Philosophy

Introduction

What is epistemological rationalism?

Epistemological rationalism is the position that human beings have important ideas or principles present in their minds from birth, and that the most important truths about the world can be derived from thought, without the need for experience. These a priori truths are also held to be logically certain, which is to say that it would entail a logical contradiction to deny them, and that they are absolutely certain, or, in current terminology, “true in all possible worlds.”