Plato and Locke's Views on an Innate Idea

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Plato and Locke's Views on an Innate Idea

What is an innate idea? This can be defined as some idea or mental

representation that is produced by outside perception or created anew by our

imagination. It exists in the mind in virtue of the nature of the human mind.

According to Plato most if not all of our knowledge is innate. However, John

Locke feels that we do not have any innate ideas. Then the question arises of

who is right or are they both wrong. In this paper I will attempt to examine

the conflicting views of Plato and Locke.

The problem that I will be dealing with involves the different views of Locke

and Plato. The main focus of the paper will be to deal with both sides of the

view on innate ideas and determine which is plausible. I will be looking

particularly at Plato's treatment of the concepts in the Meno and Locke's

treatment in certain parts of the essay on human understanding.

It is very hard to determine what if anything the mind possesses. It could

possess everything we will ever know, as Plato seems to think, or the mind could

possess nothing. Both of these views will be discussed in the following paper.

Plato's view on knowledge stems from Socrates and his teachings. Socrates

claimed to not know what virtues were or if they existed. However, he develops

a peculiar view of ideas and knowledge acquisition. [Meno 70-100b]. First, I

will begin by setting up the background of the Meno. Socrates has been on a

quest to find if anyone knows what virtues are and who has the virtues. While

in the process of this Socrates makes many enemies. At the beginning of the

d...

... middle of paper ...

...the experience

at hand. When we learn from this experience it is engraved on our minds or

slates. Locke is a model empiricist. But I also feel he should compromise on

the issue of innate capacities. This would allow for all the knowledge we gain

from experience to be filtered and classified to further our learning.

Therefore, we would have no innate ideas but we would gain our knowledge from

experiences. However, we would have the innate capacities to filter our

knowledge.

Works Cited

Brown, M. (1971). Plato's Meno. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc

Chappell, V. (1994). The Cambridge Companion to Locke. New York: Cambridge University Press.

Chappell, V. (1998). Locke. New York: Oxford University Press.

Cooper, J.M.,(1997). Plato: Complete Works. Indianapolis, IN : Hackett Publishing Company.

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