Panrationalism

Panrationalism(orcomprehensive rationalism)holds two premises true:

1. Arationalistaccepts any position that can be justified or established by appeal to the rational criteria or authorities.
2. He accepts only those positions that can be so justified.

The first problem that needs to be dealt with is: what is the rational criterion or authority to which they appeal? Here the panrationalists diverge into two groups:

1. Intellectualists – to whom the rational authority lies in the human intellect, in the faculty of reason.
2. Empiricists– to whom the rational authority is achieved bysense experience(such as seeing or hearing).

Descartesis considered the founder of rationalism and gave the illustrationcogito ergo sumas the paradigm to demonstrate what he believed.

The problem of both these appeals is that:

1. Intellectualism is "too wide" by letting too much in (basically everything, in a strict sense).
2. Empiricism is "too narrow" in that it excludes too much (basically everything, in a strict sense).

In hisThe Critique of Pure ReasonKantsought to reconcile both appeals.

See also

• Critical rationalism
• Pancritical rationalism

References

• W. W. Bartley III,The Retreat to Commitment,La Salle; Open Court Publishing Company, 1984.