Nature vs. Nurture: John Locke on Innate Ideas

In book one of An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, John Locke argues against innate ideas using three arguments. The intention of this paper will be to discuss John Locke’s views on ideas while introducing and explaining his three arguments against innate ideas in detail touching on his idea of tabula rasa. Furthermore, it will briefly discuss alternative views on innate ideas as both conflicting and similar.

John Locke’s writings came at a time when there was a philosophical debate going on between the empiricists and the rationalists. The rationalists believed that true knowledge came through certainty and rationalist philosophers such as Descartes believed in the existence of ideas and knowledge at birth. Meanwhile, the empiricists believed that the senses were pivotal to one’s ability to become cognizant of knowledge of the world. They believed that everything originates with and in experience. Being that he was an empiricists, this was the belief of John Locke.

Locke’s Argument against Innate Ideas

In his essay, Locke gives three propositions for rejecting innate objects. John Locke argued that there are no ideas that are innate ideas in the minds of human beings. He rested his reasoning on three ideas or propositions.They are as follows:

1. There is no universal assent;

2. If innate ideas are through reason, then they are deduced; and

3. If self-evidence is equal to innateness, the consequence of innate ideas end with something absurd (Ariew).

With the first of proposition, that there is no universal assent, Locke believed that in order for there to be an existence of innate ideas, there would have to be those ideas that everyone in the world would have to agree on or assent to. These ideas would be in the mind...

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... seems that the issue is a little more than subjective depending on the core beliefs of the individual (i.e. empiricist, rationalists etc.). This could of course be the reason why it was and can still be a topic of great debate.

References

Ariew, Roger, and Eric Watkins. "John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690)." Modern Philosophy: An Anthology of Primary Sources. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Pub., 2009. 316-421. Print.

Look, Brandon C., "Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Spring 2014 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL = .

Loux, Michael J. Metaphysics: Contemporary Readings. New York: Routledge, 2008. Print.

Pasternack, Lawrence, Ph.D. "John Locke." 17th & 18th Century Philosophy Lecture. Oklahoma State University, Stillwater. 11-13 Mar. 2014. Lecture