Free Practice Quiz Question List

5 Rationalism and Empiricism Online Quiz Questions

Use this free practice quiz with 20 questions to review 5 Rationalism and Empiricism, test your knowledge, and prepare for your next test or exam.

20 questions

True or false

1 point

True or false: Empiricism requires rejecting reasoning altogether.

A
True
B
False

Choose one

1 point

A person learns that it is raining outside by looking out the window. How is this belief normally justified?

A
A priori, because the claim can be justified without observation
B
A posteriori, because the claim normally requires observation
C
A priori, because rain is a familiar phenomenon
D
Neither, because it is a claim about the outside world

Written response

1 point

What term names the kind of experience that consists of perceiving the outside world?

Fill in the blank

1 point

In a valid deduction, if the premises are true, the conclusion must be .

Choose one

1 point

In Descartes’s use of methodical doubt, what does the act of doubting establish?

A
Doubting proves that every sensory belief is false
B
Doubting shows that no knowledge is possible
C
Doubting confirms that a thinker exists
D
Doubting establishes that the external world is exactly as it appears

Choose all

1 point

Select all claims that fit Locke’s account of how the mind gets and works with ideas.

A
Ideas come from sensation and reflection.
B
The mind combines and compares ideas.
C
People are born with fully formed innate principles.
D
Reason supplies an independent stock of knowledge about the world.

True or false

1 point

True or false: In the rationalist argument about geometry, observing many drawn triangles is enough to prove that a geometrical rule must hold in every case.

A
True
B
False

Written response

1 point

Which philosopher rejects the idea that people are born with fully formed innate principles?

Fill in the blank

1 point

In Hume’s distinction, claims about the world that depend on experience are called .

Choose one

1 point

According to Hume, why is expecting the sun to rise tomorrow not a deductive proof?

A
Past observations deductively prove that the future must match the past.
B
The expectation is based on experience and habit, but the future could logically differ from the past.
C
Reason alone establishes that the sun must rise tomorrow.
D
The expectation is a relation among ideas and therefore requires no experience.

Choose all

1 point

Select all claims consistent with Kant’s account of how knowledge of the experienced world is possible.

A
Knowledge of the experienced world requires sensory input.
B
The mind contributes structures that help organize sensory content.
C
The mind simply receives experience without structuring it.
D
Reason alone can reveal every fact about reality.

Choose one

1 point

Which option correctly distinguishes intuition from deduction as rationalist capacities?

A
Intuition is a direct intellectual grasp of a truth; deduction derives a conclusion from premises.
B
Intuition depends on sensory observation; deduction is the mind’s passive receipt of ideas.
C
Intuition is reasoning from premises; deduction is perceiving the outside world.
D
Intuition and deduction both refer only to repeated experience.

True or false

1 point

True or false: Locke can reject innate ideas while still accepting that reason establishes some truths.

A
True
B
False

Open ended

1 point

Explain the central difference between rationalism and empiricism concerning the sources of knowledge. Use one example to show how the two approaches might assess what reason can establish independently of experience.

Choose one

1 point

A student establishes that $7 + 5 = 12$ by calculation, without observing physical objects. How is this knowledge classified by the way it is justified?

A
A priori
B
A posteriori
C
A matter of fact
D
Reflection

Choose one

1 point

Which philosopher rejected the idea that people are born with fully formed innate principles and argued that ideas come from sensation and reflection?

A
René Descartes
B
John Locke
C
David Hume
D
Immanuel Kant

Choose one

1 point

In Descartes’s methodical doubt, what does the act of doubting itself establish?

A
Doubting proves that every belief based on the senses is false.
B
Doubting proves that the external world does not exist.
C
Doubting confirms that a thinker exists while the act of thinking is occurring.
D
Doubting shows that a person is born with every important idea.

Choose one

1 point

Which account best represents Kant’s view of how we gain knowledge of the experienced world?

A
The mind receives experience without contributing any structure.
B
Sensory input supplies content, while mental structures help organize it.
C
Reason alone reveals every fact about reality, without sensory input.
D
Experience supplies all content and organization, while the mind contributes nothing.

Written response

1 point

A student considers how they remembered and compared two ideas. In the empiricist account described in the material, what kind of experience does this illustrate?

Written response

1 point

An epistemologist accepts rational insight in mathematics but relies on experience in natural science. What does this example show about the scope of the person’s philosophical position?