John locke blank slate philosophy

The theory of the tabula rasa, proposed by the English philosopher John Locke in the 17th century, is one of the most influential ideas in the history of psychology and modern philosophy. Locke postulated that at birth, the human mind is like a "blank slate" in which there are no innate ideas, and that all knowledge comes from sensory experience and perception. This theory challenged the predominant beliefs of its time and laid the foundation for empiricism, a philosophical current that maintains that knowledge is acquired through experience. In this article, we will explore in detail John Locke's tabula rasa theory and its impact on subsequent thought.

Background of tabula rasa theory

Before the appearance of Locke's tabula rasa theory, the predominant idea in Western philosophy was that the human mind possessed certain innate or preconceived ideas. Philosophers such as Plato and Descartes maintained that there were universal concepts and absolute truths that were present in the

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A Blank Slate: The logisk Child

Enlightenment philosopher John Locke pictured a newborn's mind as a tabula rasa, or blank slate primed for learning, and believed that a child's capacity for reason increased naturally over time. Locke argued that earnest Puritans who exhorted their four-year-olds to read the Bible failed to realize that children so ung might simply not be up to the task. 

What books were suitable? In Orbis Sensualium Pictus (The Pictured World), educator Johann Amos Comenius was among the first to show that bild worked wonders to concentrate a young reader's attention.

Endorsing this view, Locke, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, added humor, brevity, and a reasoned appeal for good behavior to his trail-blazing checklist of children's literature dos and don'ts. 

Let the young relish—and reflect on—Aesop's fables, efternamn declared; let "Learning be madePlay

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John Locke’s Empiricism: Why We Are All Tabula Rasas (Blank Slates)

Are we born with innate knowledge? Or do we acquire knowledge only through our sensory experiences? Does the world of our sensory experience align to ‘reality’? Or is experience a poor guide to what’s really there? These are key questions of epistemology, the branch of philosophy concerned with what knowledge is, how we acquire it, and whether it has secure foundations.

A philosopher who had particularly influential things to say about these questions is the 17th-century English philosopher, John Locke (here’s our reading list on John Locke’s best and most essential books, who argued that knowledge is demonstrably acquired only through sensory experience, but that our sensory experience is not infallible.

In his brilliant work An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke argues that, at birth, the mind is a tabula rasa (a blank slate) that we fill with ‘ideas’ as we experience the world through the five s