rationalism

IPA: rˈæʃʌnʌɫɪzʌm

(philosophy) The theory that the reason is a source of knowledge independent of and superior to sense perception.
(philosophy) The theory that knowledge may be derived by deductions from a priori concepts (such as axioms, postulates or earlier deductions).
A view that the fundamental method for problem solving is through reason and experience rather than faith, inspiration, revelation, intuition or authority.
Elaboration of theories by use of reason alone without appeal to experience, such as in mathematical systems.

Examples of "rationalism" in Sentences

(ii) Another method is sometimes termed rationalism or abstract intellectualism.
This rationalism is dimissed by the Romantics, and in the Gothic fiction that develops from Romanticism.
The sinister cast which the word rationalism bears in much of the popular speech is evidence of this fact.
Enlightenment rationalism is also the logical basis of democracy, and Classic Liberalism (aka “conservativism”).
Scientistic rationalism is however equally non-scientific where it mistakes a highly relevant alethic model for an epistemic certainty.
In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" (Lacey 286).
The truth is that christianity has survived much greater threats than this recent fad of so called rationalism, which isn't really rationalism at all.
A movement dedicated to secular rationalism is all well and good, but what bothers me about the New Atheists is that in large part their movement seems to be dedicated to the proposition that religious belief, and therefore believers in general are both stupid and bad.