Rationalism

Rationalism  

Philosophers such as Descarte, Liebniz, etc were rationalist and considered that true knowledge is a-priori knowledge. A prioi knowledge is that which has it's source in reason alone. It is unlike the empiricism who consider true knowledge as being a-posteriori. The question now arises that is there no element of a prior knowledge in science, where a priory knowledge is the knowledge that the rationalist claim as the real knowledge. 

Rationalism believes in apriori knowledge

A prior knowledge stands for knowledge that has it's source in reason alone. Mind with it's reasoning capacity can lead to true knowledge that do not require sensory confirmation. Such knowledge are certain as well as generalized. 

Rationalism propounds Deterministic knowledge

Eempirical knowledge is probabilistic in nature. Empiricist method is inductive and inductive process leads to probabilistic knowledge. Rationalist method uses deduction and deduction leads to certain knowledge. There are no exception since exception leads to contradiction.