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How to use rationalism in a sentence

10 example sentences · noun

Rationalism means the theory that reason is a source of knowledge independent of and superior to sense perception. Example: “The opinion opposed to mysticism in philosophy is sometimes spoken of as rationalism.”

Examples of rationalism by meaning

nounA view that the fundamental method for problem solving is through reason and experience rather than faith, inspiration...

  • The opinion opposed to mysticism in philosophy is sometimes spoken of as rationalism.1902, William James, “Lecture 3”, in The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature […] , New York, N.Y.; London: Longmans...

More sentences with rationalism

  • A cold, hard rationalism based on group survival rather than personal benefit, or survivalist-style doomsteading.2010 March 21, Canuckistani, “Politics and Peak Energy”, in The Oil Drum. From the entry doomsteading
  • His sense of humour, together with his rationalism and ideology, helped me enormously on my road to recovery.2015, Douggie Barker, Catch Mumps at the Boot Sale, →ISBN. From the entry let the grass grow under one's feet
  • It is the Terrestrialism of the African (Yoruba) world-view that established its identity and distinguishes it from western rationalism.1994, Homi K. Bhabha, The Location of Culture. From the entry terrestrialism
  • The speech was a well balanced adaptation of rationalism and emotionalism for a semi-scholarly, semi-patriotic, and highly emotional occasion.1990, Ronald Forrest Reid, Edward Everett: Unionist Orator, →ISBN, page 27. From the entry semi-patriotic
  • Within the former version, we have nativism (genetic rationalism) and genetic empiricism, but apriorism (methodological rationalism) and aposteriorism (methodological empiricism) are connected with the latter.2004, Jan Woleński, “Analytic vs. synthetic and a priori vs. a posteriori”, in Handbook of Epistemology, Springer, page 782. From the entry aposteriorism
  • The works of the freethinker Averroes (twelfth century) which were based on Aristotle's philosophy, propagated a small wave of rationalism in Christian countries.1913, J. B. Bury, chapter 3, in A History of Freedom of Thought. From the entry propagate
  • This is an example of Kant's 'Copernican Revolution' breaking the wheel of empiricism and rationalism, inaugurating a new form of transcendental regulation that is to say weak correlationism.2022, Paul Boyé, "The Figure of Inhumanism: Contemporary Speculative Philosophy in the Posthuman Condition", thesis submitted to the…. From the entry break the wheel
  • In these harsh times of economic rationalism (sacking), restructuring (sacking) and merit-assessed and incentive-based liquidation and redirecting of human resources (sacking), the bulldust detector is invaluable.2008, Catherine Deveny, Say When, page 181. From the entry bulldust
  • Far from learning from the failures of ‘economic rationalism,’ the Liberals want us to swallow more of the snake oil medicine while diverting our attention to the consumption tax sideshow.1997, Frank Stilwell, “One Nation For Whom?”, in Michael Costa, Mark Hearn, editors, Reforming Australia's Unions: Insights from Southland…. From the entry sideshow

Meaning of rationalism

  1. noun The theory that reason is a source of knowledge independent of and superior to sense perception.
  2. noun The theory that knowledge may be derived by deductions from a priori concepts (such as axioms, postulates or earlier deductions).
  3. noun A view that the fundamental method for problem solving is through reason and experience rather than faith, inspiration, revelation, intuition or authority.

Full definition of rationalism

Questions about rationalism in a sentence

How do you use rationalism in a sentence?
Rationalism is used as a noun. For example: “The opinion opposed to mysticism in philosophy is sometimes spoken of as rationalism.”
What is a short sentence with rationalism?
“The opinion opposed to mysticism in philosophy is sometimes spoken of as rationalism.”
What does rationalism mean?
Rationalism means the theory that reason is a source of knowledge independent of and superior to sense perception.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rationalism (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use rationalism in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/rationalism. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.