Critique of John Locke Objection to the Innate Ideas
- 1 Department of Philosophy, Institute of Marxism, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China
Abstract
The debate about innetivism is not a new subject in philosophy. From the earlier philosophers up to the recent ones, the main question that remains is: men are born with some ideas or we only know through experience? In this study, the emphasis will not be the process of human knowledge but the controversy in the objection of Locke to the innate Idea. From the beginning of his objection, John Locke shows that we are born with empty mind. Then through experience we build the knowledge little by little. But later on, Locke recognizes that it’s also possible that children may have some ideas from the womb. They may experience wants, diseases, hunger, and heat. To him many of those ideas which were produced in the minds of children, in the beginning of their sensation, if they are not repeated in future, then they are quite lost. If we choose the fact that people are born with ideas from pre-experience, that view is more scientific and more logical than the religious view of Plato. The paper concludes that even though there is no complete agreement on how innate ideas are made, we did not come in the world with blank mind and what is important is not how innate ideas have been made but their existence and application in life.
- Adorno, T. W., & Tiedemann, R. (2001). Kants Critique of Pure Reason. Cambridge: Polity, 300 p.
- Brunt, J., & Locke, J. (1804). Extracts, from Locke’s Essay on the Human Understanding. Frankfort Kentucky.
- Casullo, A. (2012). Essays on a Priori Knowledge and Justification. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 344 p. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199777860.001.0001
- Descartes, R. (1960). Discourse on Method, and Meditations. The Library of Liberal Arts, New York: Liberal Arts Press.
- Descartes, R. (2015). The Passions of the Soul and Other Late Philosophical Writings. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
- Descartes, R. et al. (1932). Les meditationsmetaphysiques (pp. 5-343). Paris: E. Belin.
- Horowitz, T., & Camp, J. L. (2006).The Epistemology of a Priori Knowledge. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 195 p.
- Katz, S. T. (2013). Comparative Mysticism: An Anthology of Original Sources. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 618 p.
- Locke, J. (1959). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. New York: Dover Publications.
- Locke, J. (1970). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Menston: Scolar Press, 41 p.
- Locke, J., & George Fabyan Collection (Library of Congress) (1690). An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding: In Four Books. London: Eliz. Holt for Thomas Bassett, 22 p.
- Locke, J., & Mostert, A. (1923). Causes of Weakness in Men’s Understandings. 10 p.
- Locke, J., & Seth Pringle-Pattison, A. (1978). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. Hassocks Eng. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Harvester Press, Humanities Press.
- Locke, J., & Winkler, K. (1996). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding: Abridged and Edited, with an Introduction and Notes. Indianapolis, Ind.: Hackett Pub. Co., 380 p.
- Peterson, M. L. (2001). With All Your Mind: A Christian Philosophy of Education. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press.
- Pirocacos, E. (1998). False Belief and the Meno Paradox. Avebury Series in Philosophy (230 p). Aldershot, Hants; Brookfield, VT: Ashgate.
- Plato, & Grube, G. M. A. (1981). Five Dialogues (162 p). Indianapolis: Hackett Pub. Co.
- Plato, & Rowe, C. J. (1993). Phaedo (xi, 301 p). Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics. Cambridge; New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.