Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary - rationalism

 noun  Date: 1827  1. reliance on reason as the basis for establishment of religious truth  2.  a. a theory that reason is in itself a source of knowledge superior to and independent of sense perceptions  b. a view that reason and experience rather than the nonrational are the fundamental criteria in the solution of problems  3. functionalism 2  • rationalist noun  • rationalist or rationalistic adjective  • rationalistically adverb RATIONALIST  I. noun see rationalism  II. adjective see rationalism