The Evolution of Philosophy and the Evolution of Reasoning in the Modern World

The empiricists are much more experimental, use trial and error. And they come from a kind of top-down first principles. Here's what we know about the body, and here's what should be done on first principles type of thing. The rationalist mode is not sufficient to answer questions like why dinosaurs went extinct or how do we reach certainty through lab experiments? I'm also reading Michelle D'Amontaine as well as Blaise Pascal who seemed to be quite impacted by these Puriness doctrines in 1560s.