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.
Rationalism, in Western philosophy, the view that regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge. Holding that reality itself has an inherently logical structure, the rationalist asserts that a class of truths exists that the intellect can grasp directly.