The study of knowledge, better known as epistemology, is the area of philosophy that investigates the nature, sources, limitations, and validity of knowledge. Epistemology was brought about during the time of the Enlightenment during the 17th-18th centuries by modern philosophers. Epistemology answers the question 'How do we know'? It is concerned with how are minds are related to reality, and whether these relationships are valid or invalid. Epistemology is the explanation of how we think and is required in order to determine the true from the false. It is needed in order to obtain knowledge of the world around us. Epistemology can be explained through rationalism and imperialism.

Rationalists explain the world through the mind. Rationalism can be defined as the theory of knowledge, which holds that the ultimate source of knowledge is reason. Rene Descartes, a French philosopher, was a rationalist. He is often called the father of modern philosophy because of his criticism of earlier philosophical truth. He became very interested in mathematics and incorporated this reasoning into other aspects of our thinking.

As a rationalist, Descartes believed that whatever

Descartes believes that sometimes the senses deceive us into seeing illusions. Sometimes things are very far away and are hardly perceptible to the naked eye. We recognize them as a means but we can not trust entirely what we have perceived. Our senses deceive us all the time into thinking we are seeing or hearing something that is not exactly what is there. It is a distorted image that we see or hear.

The third argument involves the existence of an evil demon. He believes that there is an evil demon controlling what we think we know. He states that God is not the one who is supremely good or the fountain of truth but instead there is some evil genius who uses his energies to deceive us. The heavens, earth, figures, sounds, and colors around us are nothing more than illusions and dreams that this evil genius has laid out in order to make us question our credulity.

John Locke believed that sense perceptions are what ultimately give us all of our knowledge. Sense perceptions are defined as being clear and distinct. He argued that there are no innate ideas because if there were they would not depend upon experiences. He was a firm believer that knowledge is founded on and derived directly from experience. Sensation and reflection are the two main sources for our ideas. Sensation is when the mind is flourished with sense qualities, and reflection supplies the mind with ideas of its own operations. Locke believed in the idea of tabula rasa where the mind is viewed as being a blank page where the ideas of experience are written. He developed a principle on non-contradiction. This principle could simply be defined as not being able to do two things at the same time. For example, you can not turn left and right at the same time.

As with any argume

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