rationalism

In theology, the belief that human reason rather than divine revelation is the correct means of ascertaining truth and regulating behaviour. In philosophy, rationalism takes the view that self-evident a priori propositions (deduced by reason alone) are the sole basis of all knowledge. It is usually contrasted with empiricism, which argues that all knowledge must ultimately be derived from the senses.

The philosophers René Descartes, Gottfried Leibniz, and Baruch Spinoza are known as the continental rationalists, and are usually contrasted with the British empiricists.

rationalism

In architecture, an Italian movement of the 1920s which grew out of a reaction to the extremes of Futurism. It was led by Gruppo 7, a loose association of young Italian architects, headed by Giuseppe Terragni. The group's rationalist approach aimed to restore a sense of mass and volume to modern architecture and resulted in a clear-cut, austere style, exemplified in Terragni's Casa del Fascio, Como, 1932-36. The work of the movement suffered from its association with Fascism, but was reappraised in the 1960s by the New York Five, in particular Peter Eisenman. A parallel re-evaluation took place in Italy, culminating in the neo-rationalism of Aldo Rossi and Giorgio Grassi (1935- ).