Portrait of Lord Melvyn Bragg, host of In Our Time

Rationalists

In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification". More formally, rationalism is defined as a methodology or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive".In an old controversy, rationalism was opposed to empiricism, where the rationalists believed that reality has an intrinsically logical structure.

5 episodes

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  1. Condorcet

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the influential French philosopher and mathematician who tried to apply his Enlightenment ideas on the benefit of education to the French Revolution.

    11 January 2024

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    Featuring: Rachel Hammersley, Richard Whatmore, Tom Hopkins

     
  2. Kant's Copernican Revolution

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Kant's ideas on how the world depends on us, on the limits of human knowledge and why we are bound to ask questions we cannot answer.

    3 June 2021

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    Featuring: Fiona Hughes, Anil Gomes, John Callanan

     
  3. Plato's Gorgias

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss arguably the most personal of Plato's dialogues in which he examines the values that led to the execution of his mentor Socrates by drinking hemlock

    25 November 2021

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    Featuring: Angie Hobbs, Frisbee Sheffield, Fiona Leigh

     
  4. Popper

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the philosopher Karl Popper, author of The Open Society and a seminal thinker about science.

    8 February 2007

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    Featuring: John Worrall, Anthony O'Hear, Nancy Cartwright

     
    PhilosophyBritish political philosophersEpistemologistsCambridge University Moral Sciences ClubForeign associates of the National Academy of SciencesTheorists on Western civilizationBritish ethicistsPhilosophers of logicKnights BachelorLogiciansPresidents of the Aristotelian SocietySocial philosophersPhilosophers of technologyRationalistsAristotelian philosophersPhilosophers of economicsWriters about religion and scienceWriters about globalizationBritish philosophers of educationBritish social liberalsRecipients of the Austrian Decoration for Science and ArtBritish male non-fiction writersPhilosophers of culturePhilosophers of mathematicsBritish historians of philosophyJewish agnosticsAcademics of the London School of Economics, British philosophers of scienceCritics of religions20th-century British philosophers20th-century Austrian philosophers, Austrian agnostics, Austrian essayists, Austrian logicians, British agnostics, British logicians, British people of Austrian-Jewish descent, Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom, Writers from ViennaOntologistsPhilosophers of mindRecipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class)MetaphysiciansJewish philosophersPolitical philosophersPhilosophers of religionBritish consciousness researchers and theoristsJewish ethicistsMembers of the Order of the Companions of HonourWriters about activism and social change20th-century British essayistsCritics of MarxismPhilosophers of historyFellows of the British AcademyMetaphysics writersBritish male essayists
  5. Spinoza

    Melvyn Bragg discusses the philosopher Spinoza whose profound and complex ideas about God had him celebrated as an atheist in the 18th century.

    3 May 2007

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    Featuring: Jonathan Rée, Sarah Hutton, John Cottingham