⇒ Let's say you have a belief that you are convinced is true and, therefore, 'know' it is true. How can you be so sure?
⇒ For example, you may say "I know it's April because I looked at the calendar on my phone", but is this really enough to say that our belief is true?
⇒ Looking and seeing something (i.e. a form of experience) is one way we form beliefs
⇒ But just because we experience something, that's not necessarily the same as knowing something
⇒ For example, if you look out of your window and see the window is wet your belief could be "it's raining". However, the window may in fact be wet because 1) it was raining earlier and has now stopped or 2) someone is aiming their hose towards your window.
⇒ Similarly, reasoning is another source of belief
⇒ For example, let's you have blonde hair and your friend has brown hair. If you hear that some other person has darker hair than your friend, you can infer than this other person has darker hair than you too without actually having to see them
⇒ These two form of building 'knowledge' - experience and reasoning - are known in philosophical terms as empiricism and rationalism respectively
⇒ Rationalism: This is the idea that we come to knowledge through reasoning and logic alone.
⇒ Empricism: This is the idea that we come to knowledge through experiencing stuff through our senses e.g. sight, auditory, olfactory, etc.