Locke says that before we experience anything our minds are blank, what he calls "tabula rasa". To what extent does our knowledge derive from our senses?
Locke says that before we experience anything our minds are blank,
what he calls "tabula rasa".
To what extent does our knowledge derive from our senses?
The philosopher Locke says that we are born with nothing in our heads, this means we are required to learn everything as we grow up. The meaning I am going to take for "senses" is the different ways we absorb information: Orally, by hearing; visually, by sight; by touching; by smelling and tasting. Knowledge as I understand it is everything we know. The term "tabula rasa" literally means "blank slate". This is how Locke is describes our minds at birth.
The belief that knowledge comes from our senses is called Empiricism, and two well know empiricists are Locke and Berkeley. They believe in the tabula rasa I spoke of above. The opposites of empiricists are rationalists such as Plato. They believe in forms and ideas and that we are born with a certain amount of knowledge. Plato created an analogy involving a cave, where he demonstrated that if a man had spent his life staring at moving shadows was allowed to leave the cage and go into the outside world and then made to return. The darkness in the cave would blind him as his eyes were used to the light and everyone else in the cave would think it a bad idea to leave the cave. However, Plato says that this man is a rationalist and he has a higher level of thought meaning that he would not be able to stay in the cave, even though those around him are quite happy to stay put.
what he calls "tabula rasa".
To what extent does our knowledge derive from our senses?
The philosopher Locke says that we are born with nothing in our heads, this means we are required to learn everything as we grow up. The meaning I am going to take for "senses" is the different ways we absorb information: Orally, by hearing; visually, by sight; by touching; by smelling and tasting. Knowledge as I understand it is everything we know. The term "tabula rasa" literally means "blank slate". This is how Locke is describes our minds at birth.
The belief that knowledge comes from our senses is called Empiricism, and two well know empiricists are Locke and Berkeley. They believe in the tabula rasa I spoke of above. The opposites of empiricists are rationalists such as Plato. They believe in forms and ideas and that we are born with a certain amount of knowledge. Plato created an analogy involving a cave, where he demonstrated that if a man had spent his life staring at moving shadows was allowed to leave the cage and go into the outside world and then made to return. The darkness in the cave would blind him as his eyes were used to the light and everyone else in the cave would think it a bad idea to leave the cave. However, Plato says that this man is a rationalist and he has a higher level of thought meaning that he would not be able to stay in the cave, even though those around him are quite happy to stay put.