Critique of John Locke Objection to the Innate Ideas

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.

Documents of Socially Engaged Art

“…He opposes the doctrine of innatism (Winchester, 1985), which states that the mind is already born with ideas, knowledge and beliefs. Prominent philosophers like Plato argued that certain knowledge preexists in one's mind (Yacouba, 2016). According to Kenny (1968), Descartes supported innatism as a concept of knowledge that is universal to all mankind.…”