Entry 18: Rational or Transcendental?

Review the "Rationalist World View" on p. 15 of your text. Then read "A Transcendental View of the World" on p. 171. Describe the similarities and differences between the two philosophical schools. How would you sum up each in a nutshell? Which viewpoint is closer to your own? What elements of either do you particularly agree or disagree with? Explain.

• The main difference between the pint of views of the rationalists and the transcendentalists is that the rationalist believe the reason and logic is more important while the transcendentalists believe that feeling, emotion, and intuition is way more important. The point of view that I believe I am closer to is the rationalist point of view. I do not have any particularly strong religious behaviors, and I usually do not trust my intuition because it's wrong most of the time and I don't trust my emotions because I sometimes have mood swings that make them not reliable to trust. I sometimes even detest my feelings because they might be horrible (and why I won't explain).
• The basic ideas of rationalism is that God made things and does not interfere with its workings, letting it run on its own. The rationalists believed that the gift God gave them was the ability to reason, and by using this reason they will be able to find truths, therefore valuing reason and logic more than anything else. The beliefs of rationalists usually take them towards civilization. On the other hand, the transcendentalists use intuition to find the way to enter the spiritual/ideal world, and therefore value feelings, emotion, and intuition over reason and logic. The transcendentalists basically move away from civilization and tend to move towards nature to find their truths. Both of these point of views are the same because both include inquiry (though towards different subjects), both believed that human beings are basically good, and most important of all, they both believed in God.