These concepts have a long history in philosophy. We will just scratch the surface of the differences and applications of both. For a more thorough discussion, take a Philosophy class. You\u2019ll be a more careful, curious, critical thinker if you do. Throughout our discussion of these terms, rationalism is associated with reason, and empiricism is associated with (direct) observation. In Asimov\u2019s short story \u201cReason,\u201d QT (Cutie) is a rationalist, and Donovan and Powell are empiricists.*<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Deduction vs. Induction (reasoning)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Broadly speaking, there are two ways to arrive at conclusions, deduction and induction<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n Remember, however, no one is a strict anything when it comes to philosophical stances. We don’t strictly adhere to one way to the truth or assumed truth; instead, we often reach conclusions based on context. In other words, we may be more likely to privilege reason and deduction in one circumstance and empiricism and induction in another circumstance. What is important for this class is to try to determine what kind of reasoning particular parties (scientists, engineers, humanoid robots, the monster, etc.) use to reach conclusions. We aren’t going to focus on the<\/strong> conclusion. We are more interested in how (or why) they reached their conclusions.<\/p>\n From a Biblical example (on American Exceptionalism<\/a><\/strong>) to, well, perhaps, quite the opposite. Asimov is certainly making a comment about religion, but it’s not so simply an anti-religious comment. There’s a philosophical debate going on between QT and Powell & Donovan.<\/p>\n Before getting into the religious discussion, think about QT’s position: He’s on a spaceship with no memory of Earth. He recognizes he’s superior to Powell and Donovan, so he starts drawing conclusions that are quite similar to the conclusions those promoting an American exceptionalism ideology draw\u2014we’re better; therefore, we should give orders.<\/p>\n Below are places in the story that we should remember. I selected ones that had much to say about rationalism vs. empiricism.<\/p>\n What did QT do when the electronic storm happened?<\/p>\n Interesting Anachronisms, Predictions, and Objects for “Reason’s” future setting<\/span><\/p>\n This is a reading, an interpretation of many other possible ones, but it will come back in other science fiction texts. The robots in “Reason” and the rest of Asimov’s robot stories (see I, Robot<\/em> [1950] for his most famous ones) are humans. We make up stories about where we come from; we participate in hierarchies for efficiency (or the assumption of efficiency); we create tools to accomplish goals. QT is in space making sure he serves the Master, and Earth gets the energy it needs. We’re here on Earth using mobile phones and don’t need to know anything about satellites, towers, or signals. We’ve seamlessly weaved most technologies into ours lives without having a full understanding of them. Another theme in science fiction this will bring up is the anxiety of not being fully in control of our destinies. Authors create alien invaders with superior technologies to play out these (mostly) unconscious social anxieties.<\/a><\/p>\n *However, if you read the entire book I, Robot<\/em>, you could argue that Donovan and Powell are predominantly rationalists that base their assumptions about robot behavior on intuition. Their intuition, which they use to figure out what\u2019s wrong with the robots, is their knowledge of the 3 Laws of Robotics. That knowledge is a priori<\/em>. Remember, you\u2019ll need to be able to deal with ambiguity in this class\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Rationalism vs. Empiricism These concepts have a long history in philosophy. We will just scratch the surface of the differences and applications of both. For a more thorough discussion, take a Philosophy class. You\u2019ll be a more careful, curious, critical thinker if you do. Throughout our discussion of these terms, rationalism is associated with reason, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":598,"featured_media":0,"parent":2019,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1948","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2HAOx-vq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1948","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/598"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1948"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10124,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1948\/revisions\/10124"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/aaron-toscano\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n
Asimov, Isaac “Reason” (1941\/1946)<\/h2>\n
Major Quotations from Asimov’s “Reason”<\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
QT\u00a0as a Metaphor for Human Reason…<\/h2>\n
\n