The term "Continental Rationalism" traditionally refers to a 17th century philosophical movement begun by Descartes. After Descartes, several dozen scientists and philosophers continued his teachings throughout continental Europe and, accordingly were titled "Cartesians." Some Cartesians strayed little from Descartes' scientific and metaphysical theories. Others incorporated his theories into Calvinistic theology. But a handful of philosopher s influenced by Descartes were more original in developing their own views and these people are included under the more general title "rationalists." the principle rationalists include Benedict Spinoza , Nicholas Malebranche, Gottfried Willhelm Leibniz, and Christian Wolff.

Continental Rationalism is usually understood in relation to its rival 17th century movement, British Empiricism, founded by John Locke. The radical division between these two schools was first articulated by Thomas Reid in his Inquiry Concerning the Human Mind; Reid's division was taken as the definitive explanation, which has come down to the present time. Two key points distinguish Rationalism from British Empiricists. The first involves differing theories about the origin of ideas. Rationalists believed that an important group of foundational concepts are known intuitively through reason, as opposed to experience. Descartes describes such concepts as innate ideas, the most important of these including the ideas of oneself, infinite perfection, and causality. British Empiricists, as we will see, staunchly rejected this view, and argued that all ideas trace ultimately trace back to experiences, such as sense perceptions and emotions. The second distinguishing feature between Rationalism and Empiricism concerns their differing methods of investigating problems. Rationalists maintained that we could deduce truths with absolute certainty from our innate ideas, much the way theorems in geometry are deduced from axioms. Mathematical demonstration was seen as the perfect type of demonstrating truth and, accordingly, mathematical proof became the model for all other kinds of demonstration. Although empiricists also used deductive reasoning, they put a greater emphasis on the inductive method championed by fellow British countryman Francis Bacon.

Contemporary historians of philosophy challenge this traditional distinction between rationalism and empiricism. Louis Loeb, for example, argues for an alternative classification of 17th and 18th century philosophers which is more representative of t he actual content of their metaphysical and epistemological positions. In spite of Loeb's suggestions, the traditional division between rationalism and empiricism offered by Reid has at least some foundation, and is convenient for understanding the evolution of philosophical theories during the modern period of philosophy.