A Companion to Rationalism

What is rationalism? Philosophers have learned not to expect detailed, or even fully coherent, answers to this sweeping kind of question. There is, nevertheless, a core of rationalist thinking that can be traced through two millennia of recorded philosophical development. The rationalist insists on the distinction between appearance and reality. Reality is revealed to our rational thought, which might also be called “reason” or “intellect.” Since appearance is the way reality appears to us, philosophy has two important tasks. The first is to employ rational thought to reveal the truth about the real. The second is to explain the appearances in terms of the real. Why do we naturally fasten on apparent truth instead of the real?

http://www.4shared.com/document/Iwmxeew8/A_Companion_to_Rationalism_Bla.html