Philosophy 1020 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: Tabula Rasa, Empiricism, Old-Growth Forest

• School: Western University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: Philosophy 1020
• Professor: John Thorp

Document Summary

John locke 17th century english thinker: empiricism: there is nothing in the mind that did not get there through the senses. There is nothing in the mind that didn"t get there through senses. The overall project of empiricism is to figure out how all knowledge arises through sensation, or sense- perception. Before sense perception happens, the mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate) Shaved tablet: the meaning of "idea" Whatever it is which the mind can be employed about in thinking. Locke wants to defend the view that there are not. It was commonly thought that there were some innate ideas. God was innate: innate: present from birth, an opposing argument: certain speculative principles, many people think that there are certain speculative principles that are so universally shared that they must be innate. Locke points out that the fact such principles are universally held would not at all show that they must be innate.