An essay that argues for Empiricism against rationalism using direct quotes from Hume and Descartes

In the argument of empiricism versus rationalism, empiricism is the superior position. Rene Descartes supports rationalism, which is the attainment of knowledge through reason. David Hume supports empiricism, the attainment of knowledge a posteriori, through experience. Both positions have strong arguments. Descartes is wary of "[accepting] anything as true that [he] did not plainly know to be such" . Descartes believes that we must "be assured of using [our] reason in everything..." in order to gain …

…always taken never to accept into my beliefs any new opinions for which I did not have very certain demonstrations..." "Demonstration" is another word for experience. Empiricism seems to be a more solid position in that all empiricists agree that knowledge requires experience; "custom...is that principle alone, which renders our experience useful to us, and makes us expect, for the future, a similar train of events with those that have appeared in the past".