Rationality or Rationalism?

[chitraaa]

I am confused about the use of "rationality" and "rationalism" in these sentences that I wrote:

• The sacred humanist concepts of secularism, rationality, and democracy...
• Environmental crisis has put a question mark over humanism. Rationalism and democracy are also problematic concepts today.
• Recent developments have countermined the sacrosanct concepts of secular democracy and rationalism...

Is the use of the 2 terms correct in the above 3 sentences? Please guide.

 

[jutfrank]

If I understand correctly what you mean, I say you should use rationalism in all three cases.

 

[Jemima23]

Not a teacher.

I hope other members of the forum will correct me if I'm wrong in my understanding of the difference here.
Personally, If I talked about an individual, I'd use "rationality", and if I talked about something on a bigger scale (like a political or philosophical discussion), I'd use "rationalism".
So I agree with jutfrank here, I'd use "rationalism" in all three examples.

 

[jutfrank]

I hope other members of the forum will correct me if I'm wrong in my understanding of the difference here.
Personally, If I talked about an individual, I'd use "rationality", and if I talked about something on a bigger scale (like a political or philosophical discussion), I'd use "rationalism".

That fits with how I understand it.

The suffix -ity in rationality gives the basic sense of 'state of', so you can take rationality to mean something like 'the state of being rational'.

The suffix -ism in rationalism shows that it is a system of thought, or a way of thinking, or an approach taken towards some end. Something like that.

In the three sentences in the OP, rationalism is not meant in the strictly defined epistemology sense where it has always been contrasted to empiricism, but in the sense of 'scientific' rationalism, which is more contrasted to theism and mysticism. In this sense, it is heavily associated with atheism, humanism, secularism, and the scientific method. I take it that that's what chitraaa means.