Rationalism.

i have to do a access rationalism essay and i was wondering what i could add too it about weakness's of rationalism.

The dispute between rationalism and empiricism are apposed to each other on the point that we are dependent upon senses and experience to gain knowledge. Rationalists claim that we can gain knowledge without the use of experience and through logic and reasoning. Empiricists claim that we need to experience things first to be able to gain knowledge.
Rationalism believes in logic and innate ideas, the fact that we are bornhttp://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/images/smilies/eek3.gif with knowledge already in us, Plato's theory said that he believed knowledge came from the world of forms. The debate between rationalism and empiricism has been ongoing for centuries, the main philosophers that were involved with rationalism were Leibniz, Descartes, Spinoza and Plato.
Rationalism could been seen as correct in that some babies show innate ideas, such as the gripping of things around them and sucking, which shows how they already knew. A priori; which means prior to, shows how rationalists thought you could know something through logic without having to have experienced it first.
A strength of rationalism is that if one person is thinking it then cant everyone else? Therefore it is universal.
A good example of a strength of rationalism, is Rene Descartes' Wax; he says that we may see, smell, feel wax in it's solid form an call it wax. If we then light the wax, it becomes a different form, but with different physical features yet we still call it wax. This shows that the idea of wax can not be proved through experience but must be thought about.
A weakness of rationalism is that we cannot gain all knowledge through logic and reason, some things you have to experience first. One example of this could be that you may think something like, you know what an apple looks like and even what it smells like, however you can not know what it tastes like or work out what it will taste like through logic ,you may have an idea but you can not know, therefore you need to experience it so you can find out.

you dont have to read this but id be grateful for advice, bearing in mind ive only been doing philosophy for like two weeks ish.

Rationalism is a way of finding the truth/knowledge using only logic and our minds. It does not depend on sensory input (empiricism)to find truth.
An easy example of this is mathematics: 1 + 1 = 2. This is a thought process correct. If we were to try and achieve this knowledge through experience (an apple plus another apple) would require a thought process to make 2 apples. Knowledge gained through thoughts is called A priori and knowldge gained though experience or the senses is A posteriori (essentially before experience and after experience.
Thats the basics.

A strength of rationalism is that if one person can think it, so can everyone else. Therefore it is universal and eternal.
A good example to use in your exam paper, as a strength of rationalism, is René Descartes' Wax; he says that we may see, smell, feel wax in it's solid form an call it wax. If we then light the wax, it becomes a completely different form, now with different physical properties yet we still call it wax. In this instance the idea of wax cannot be obtained through experience but must be thought.

A weakness of rationalism is that we cannot gain all knowledge through thinking. I could think of a strawberry and how it would be but could you imagine the taste. Our brains do not have the capacity to create the taste. We could not simply think " Yum strawberries taste delicious" because we do not "know" how we would react to the strawberries taste. (I confused myself)

So in brief -
Rationalism: Knowledge gained through thinking
Empiricism: Knowledge gained through the senses
A priori: Before experience (rationalism)
A posteriori: After experience (empiricism)
Strength: Universality (if thats a word :P)
Weakness: Not all knowledge can be gained

I hope this helps :-)