The U.S. welfare system would be an unlikely model for anyone designing a welfare system from scratch. The dozens of programs that make up the âsystemâ have different (sometimes competing) goals, inconsistent rules, and over-lapping groups of beneficiaries.
Definition of skepticism. 1  1 : an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object. 2  2a : the doctrine that true knowledge or knowledge in a particular area is uncertainb : the method of suspended judgment, systematic doubt, or criticism characteristic of skeptics.
In epistemology, rationalism is the view that regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge or any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification. More formally, rationalism is defined as a methodology or a theory in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive. In an old controversy, rationalism was opposed to empiricism, where the rationalists believed that reality has an intrinsically logical structure.