Saturday, October 13, 2012

John Locke's theory of knowledge - does knowledge comes through sense perception and human experience?

In his Essay, (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding), Locke explains the gradual unfolding of this conscious mind. Arguing against both the Augustinian view of man as originally sinful and the Cartesian position, which holds that man innately knows basic logical propositions, Locke posits an "empty" mind, a tabula rasa, which is shaped by experience; sensations and reflections being the two sources of all our ideas.           (Wikipedia)
                                                                                                                                                          Locke's central premise in his epistemology is that all knowledge is grounded in experience. He also argues that we are born without innate knowledge, and that the mind is a blank slate:

'Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas:- How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE. In that all our knowledge is founded; and from that it ultimately derives itself.'
 (An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Book 2, Chapter 1)

This short video introduces and briefly considers Locke's claim.

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