Rational fideism is the philosophical

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

 view that considers faith

Faith

Faith is confidence or trust in a person or thing, or a belief that is not based on proof. In religion, faith is a belief in a transcendent reality, a religious teacher, a set of teachings or a Supreme Being. Generally speaking, it is offered as a means by which the truth of the proposition,...

 to be precursor for any reliable knowledge

Knowledge

Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...

. Whether one considers rationalism

Rationalism

In epistemology and in its modern sense, rationalism is "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification" . In more technical terms, it is a method or a theory "in which the criterion of the truth is not sensory but intellectual and deductive"...

 or empiricism

Empiricism

Empiricism is a theory of knowledge that asserts that knowledge comes only or primarily via sensory experience. One of several views of epistemology, the study of human knowledge, along with rationalism, idealism and historicism, empiricism emphasizes the role of experience and evidence,...

, either of them ultimately tends to belief

Belief

Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true.-Belief, knowledge and epistemology:The terms belief and knowledge are used differently in philosophy....

in reason

Reason

Reason is a term that refers to the capacity human beings have to make sense of things, to establish and verify facts, and to change or justify practices, institutions, and beliefs. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, language, ...

 or experience

Experience

Experience as a general concept comprises knowledge of or skill in or observation of some thing or some event gained through involvement in or exposure to that thing or event....

respectively as the absolute basis for their methods. Thus, faith is basic to knowability. However, as Domenic Marbaniang shows, faith must be corroborated with reason and experience in order to gain knowledge.

External links

• On Kierkegaard's Fideism http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/1468-2265.00084
• Stanford on Fideism http://www.seop.leeds.ac.uk/entries/fideism/
• Marbaniang, Domenic. Epistemics of Divine Reality,ISBN 978-1-105-16077-6 http://books.google.com/books?id=fL-dAqxShiwC&printsec=frontcover
• Rational Fideism http://www.scribd.com/doc/48416873/Rational-Fideism
• Four Principles of Rational Fideism http://marbaniang.wordpress.com/2011/09/30/four-principles-of-rational-fideism/