RATHENAU 



6496 



RATIONALISM 



Rathenau, EMIL (1838-1915). 

 German capitalist. Born of Jewish 

 parentage in Berlin, Dec. 11, 1838, 

 he was trained 

 as an engineer 

 at Hanover, 

 Zurich, and 

 elsewhere. 

 After gaining 

 further ex- 

 perience with 

 an English 

 firm, he re- 

 Emil Rathenau, turned to 

 German capitalist Berlin and 

 started a foundry of his own. 

 This was not a success, but after 

 years of wandering over the world, 

 in 1881 he took up Edison's in- 

 candescent lamp invention, and 

 formed a company tf> work it in 

 Germany; soon he did the same 

 for the telephone, and hi 1887 

 his firm became the General Elec- 

 tric Co. Kindred concerns were 

 absorbed, and Rathenau supplied 

 Berlin with electric light and 

 various towns with tramways, he 

 himself being engineer, merchant, 

 manufacturer, and banker in one. 

 He died June 20, 1915. 



His son, Walter (1867-1922), 

 succeeded his father as the 

 head of the concern. After the 

 changes of 1918 he became as 

 prominent in politics as he was in 

 business. In 1921 he was made 

 minister of reconstruction, and 

 later became foreign minister. A 

 writer, one of his books dealing 

 with industrialism was translated 

 into English as In Days to Come, 

 1921. He was assassinated, June 

 25, 1922. 



Rathenow. Town of Prussia, 

 Germany. In the prov. of Branden- 

 burg, it stands. on the right bank of 

 the Havel, 43 m. N.W. of Berlin. 

 Its buildings include a Protestant 

 church, dating from the 14th-16th 

 centuries, and a R.C. one. There are 

 manufactures of cloth, optical in- 

 struments, wood, and machinery. 

 It became a town in 1295. The 

 Swedes were defeated here by 

 Frederick William of Brandenburg 

 in 1675. Pop. 25,000. 



Rathfarnnam. Town of co. 

 Dublin, Ireland. It stands on the 

 Dodder, 3J m. S. of Dublin. The 

 chief industries are paper-making 

 and corn-milling. There is a castle, 

 built hi the 16th century, and long 

 the property of the Loftus family. 

 Pop. 9,000. 



Rathfryland. Market town of 

 co. Down, Ireland. It is 10 m. N.E. 

 of Newry. The chief building is 

 the market house, and there are 

 remains of a castle. Market day, 

 Wed. Pop. 1,400. < . 



Rathkeale. Market town of co. 

 Limerick, Ireland. It stands on the 

 Deel, 19 m. from Limerick, with a 



station on the G.S. & W. Rly. There 

 are rums of a priory founded in 

 1289, and near the town are those 

 of a castle. Rathkeale was at one 

 time a corporate town. Market 

 day, Thurs. Pop. 1,700. 



Rathlhi OR RAGHERY. Island of 

 Ireland. Off the N. coast of co. 

 Antrim, it is 5 m. N. of Bally- 

 castle. It measures 6 m. from 

 E. to W., has a breadth of 1J m., 

 and reaches an alt. of 448 ft. S. 

 Columba founded a church here in 

 the 6th century, and Robert Bruce 

 found refuge on the island hi 1306 ; 

 the remains of Bruce's Castle 

 occupy an elevated position in the 

 N.E. of Rathlin. Pop. 350. 



Rathmines. Southern suburb 

 of Dublin, Ireland. With a station 

 on the Dublin & S.E. Rly., it occu- 

 pies, in part, the site of the 

 " Bloody Fields," the scene of the 

 massacres of English colonists on 

 Easter Monday, 1209. Limestone 

 is quarried. Pop. (Rathmines and 

 Rathgar, urban dist.) 38,000. 



Rathmore, DAVID PLUNKET, 

 BARON (1838-1919). Irish states- 

 man. Born Dec. 3, 1838, the 

 third son of the 

 third, and the 

 grandson of the 

 first Baron 

 Plunket (q.v.), 

 he was edu- 

 c a t e d at 

 Trinity Col- 

 lege, Dublin. 

 Called to the 

 Irish bar in 

 1862, in 1868 

 he was appointed law adviser to 

 Dublin Castle. In 1870 he was 

 elected M.P. for Dublin University. 

 Plunket became solicitor-general 

 for Ireland, 1874-77, paymaster- 

 general, 1880, and first com- 

 missioner of works, 1885. He 

 was again commissioner of works 

 1886-92, and in 1895 he was raised 

 to the peerage as Baron Rathmore 

 of Shanganagh. He then turned 

 his attention to railways, becoming 

 director of the L.N.W., and chair- 

 man of the N.L. Rlys. A director 

 of the Suez Canal Co., he also took 

 part hi founding the Central London 

 Rly. He died Aug. 22, 1919. " 

 Rathven. Coast parish and 

 village of Banffshire, Scotland. It 

 is 4 m. W.S.W. of Cullen, on the 

 Highland Rly. The parish contains 

 numerous antiquities, chiefly cairns 

 and tumuli. Pop. (1921) 15,400. 

 Ratibor. Town of Silesia, Ger- 

 many. It stands on the left bank 

 of the Oder, 88 m. from Breslau. 

 The buildings include a palace, 

 formerly the residence of the dukes 

 of Ratibor, modern law courts, and 

 a Gothic church dating from the 

 15th century. An industrial centre 

 on the Silesian coalfield, the town 



Baron Rathmore, 

 Irish statesman 



has iron-foundries, railway shops, 

 and manufactures of machinery. It 

 became a town, 1217. Pop. 38,400. 



The principality of Ratibor, of 

 which Ratibor was the capital, was 

 one of the little states of medieval 

 Germany. , Its area was about 

 400 sq. m., and it existed until 

 1532, when it became part of 

 Austria. In 1745 it passed into the 

 possession of Prussia. In 1821 a 

 duchy of Ratibor was formed for 

 the landgrave of Hesse-Rothen 

 burg, and from him it passed to 

 the family of Hohenlohe. 



Rating. Name given hi the 

 British navy to anyone belonging 

 to the lower deck. Sailors are 

 rated as able seamen, petty officers, 

 etc. Hence, obtaining promotion 

 is commonly spoken of as picking 

 up a rate. Rate as applied to a 

 vessel means her classification. 



Rationalism (Lat. ratio, rea- 

 son). In philosophy, the theory that 

 reason is the chief, if not the only, 

 source of knowledge. It is opposed 

 to empiricism (q.v.) and sensation- 

 alism (q.v.). According to the 

 rationalist, reason is an original 

 faculty which supplies us with con- 

 cepts and first principles, different 

 from the data of sense, which make 

 it possible to go beyond sensible 

 knowledge and attain the reality of 

 things. While, however, some re- 

 gard these concepts as innate in the 

 mind, others regard them as im- 

 mediately discerned by the mind, as 

 intuitive principles. 



The rationalism of Kant, while 

 asserting the existence of certain a 

 priori (q.v.) principles due to rea- 

 son alone, at the same time admits 

 that reason can know nothing with- 

 out the aid of experience, beyond 

 the limits of which it can never go. 

 Herbert Spencer, while granting 

 that certain notions, such as space 

 and time, are a priori as far as ,the 

 individual is concerned, considers 

 them to be in reality the result of 

 cumulative experience. In theology, 

 rationalism, as opposed to super- 

 naturalism, is the system which 

 interprets all religious belief and 

 dogma in the light of reason, reject- 

 ing the authority of tradition and 

 revelation. This line of thought, 

 first systematised by Spinoza, came 

 into special prominence during the 

 struggle between deism and ortho- 

 doxy, between the supporters of 

 natural and supernatural religion 

 in the 18th century^ j See Free- 

 thought ; consult also History of 

 English Rationalism in the Nine- 

 teenth Century, A. W. Benn, 1906 ; 

 History of the Rise and Influence of 

 Rationalism in Europe, W. E. H. 

 Lecky, new ed. 1910 ; History of 

 Freedom of Thought, J. B. Bury, 

 1913 ; Biographical Dict.of Modern 

 Rationalists, J. McCabe, 1921. 



