Rationalism vs. Empiricism

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Rationalist and Empiricist view on Infinite Regress

The debate between rationalism and empiricism falls under the branch of knowledge. The study of knowledge addresses "questions of what we can know, how we can know what we know, and what knowledge is . . ." (Law 49). A central discussion here is the debate between rationalists and empiricists. Rationalism is the "belief that pure reasoning untainted by sense perception will yield incorrigible truths . . . and no experience is necessary to know that it is true" (Greetham 101). On the other hand, "empiricists claim that sense experience is the ultimate source of all our concepts and knowledge" (Markie, "Rationalism vs. Empiricism"). Despite the conflict between both, is there anything they may have in common?

The common factor between rationalism and empiricism is skepticism. Skepticism addresses the question of justifying our knowledge. It asks the question on how do we know that we know? Michael Huemer offers four arguments for skepticism. However, I shall only focus on the infinite regress argument. This paper aims to provide an answer to the following question, how