130
IN CONTEXT
NO MAN’S BRANCH
Epistemology
KNOWLEDGE HERE
APPROACH
Empiricism
CAN GO BEYOND
BEFORE
c.380 BCE In his dialogue,
Meno, Plato argues that we
HIS EXPERIENCE
remember knowledge from
previous lives.
Mid-13th century Thomas
Aquinas puts forward the
JOHN LOCKE (1632–1704) principle that “whatever is
in our intellect must have
previously been in the senses.”
AFTER
Late 17th century Gottfried
Leibniz argues that the mind
may seem to be a tabula rasa
at birth, but contains innate,
underlying knowledge, which
experience gradually uncovers.
1966 Noam Chomsky, in
Cartesian Linguistics, sets out
his theory of innate grammar.
J
ohn Locke is traditionally
included in the group of
philosophers known as the
British Empiricists, together with
two later philosophers, George
Berkeley and David Hume. The
empiricists are generally thought
to hold the view that all human
knowledge must come directly or
indirectly from the experience of
the world that we acquire through
the use of our senses alone. This
contrasts with the thinking of the
rationalist philosophers, such
as René Descartes, Benedictus
Spinoza, and Gottfried Leibniz,
who hold that in principle, at least,
it is possible to acquire knowledge
solely through the use of reason.
RENAISSANCE AND THE AGE OF REASON 131
See also: Plato 50–55 ■ Thomas Aquinas 88–95 ■ René Descartes 116–23 ■ Benedictus Spinoza 126–29 ■
Gottfried Leibniz 134–37 ■ George Berkeley 138–41 ■ David Hume 148–53 ■ Noam Chomsky 304–05
Rationalists believe that we are
born with some ideas and concepts;
that they are “innate.”
If we attentively consider
newborn children, we
shall have little reason
to think that they bring
many ideas into
But this is not borne
out by the fact that...
the world with them.
John Locke
...there are no truths ...there are no universal
that are found in ideas found in people of
everyone at birth. all cultures at all times.
Understanding, against the theory
proposed by the rationalists to
explain how knowledge could be
accessed without experience. This
is the theory of innate ideas.
Everything we The concept that human beings
know is gained from are born with innate ideas, and that
experience. these can give us knowledge about
the nature of the world around us,
independently of anything we may
experience, dates back to the dawn
In fact, the division between these up of submicroscopic particles, or of philosophy. Plato had developed
two groups is not as clear-cut as corpuscles, which we can have no a concept, according to which all
is often assumed. The rationalists direct knowledge of, but which, by genuine knowledge is essentially
all accept that in practice our their very existence, make sense of located within us, but that when
knowledge of the world ultimately phenomena that would otherwise we die our souls are reincarnated
stems from our experience, and be difficult or impossible to explain. into new bodies and the shock of
most notably from scientific enquiry. Corpuscular theory was becoming birth causes us to forget it all.
Locke reaches his distinctive views popular in 17th-century scientific Education is therefore not about
concerning the nature of the world thinking and is fundamental to learning new facts, but about
by applying a process of reasoning Locke’s view of the physical world. “unforgetting”, and the educator
later known as abduction (inference is not a teacher but a midwife.
to the best explanation from the Innate ideas However, many later thinkers
available evidence) to the facts of The claim that man’s knowledge countered Plato’s theory, proposing
sensory experience. For example, cannot go beyond his experience that all knowledge cannot be innate
Locke sets out to demonstrate that may therefore seem inappropriate, and that only a limited number of
the best explanation of the world or at least an exaggeration, when concepts can be. These include the
as we experience it is corpuscular attributed to Locke. However, concept of God and also that of a
theory. This is the theory that Locke does argue at some length, perfect geometric structure, such
everything in the world is made in his Essay Concerning Human as an equilateral triangle. This ❯❯
132 JOHN LOCKE
type of knowledge, in their view, our senses. He argues that there is
can be gained without any direct not the slightest empirical evidence
sensory experience, in the way to suggest that the minds of infants
that it is possible to devise a are other than blank at birth, and
mathematical formula by using adds that this is also true of the
nothing more than the powers of minds of the mentally deficient, It seems to me a
reason and logic. René Descartes, stating that “they have not the least near contradiction to
for example, declares that although apprehension or thought of them.” say that there are truths
he believes that we all have an idea Locke, therefore, declares that any imprinted on the soul,
of God imprinted in us—like the doctrine supporting the existence which it perceives or
mark that a craftsman makes in of innate ideas must be false. understands not.
the clay of a pot—this knowledge Locke also goes on to attack John Locke
of God’s existence can only be the very notion of innate ideas by
brought into our conscious mind arguing that it is incoherent. In
through a process of reasoning. order for something to be an idea
at all, he states that it has to have
Locke’s objections been present at some point in
Locke was against the idea that somebody’s mind. But, as Locke
human beings possess any kind points out, any idea that claims somewhere, before the presence
of innate knowledge. He takes to be truly innate must also be of any sort of mechanism that is
the view that the mind at birth claiming to precede any form of capable of conceiving them and
is a tabula rasa—a blank tablet or human experience. Locke accepts bringing them into consciousness.
a new sheet of paper upon which that it is true, as Gottfried Leibniz The supporters of the existence
experience writes, in the same states, that an idea may exist so of innate ideas often also argue
way that light can create images deep in a person’s memory that that as such ideas are present in
on photographic film. According for a time it is difficult or even all human beings at birth, they
to Locke, we bring nothing to the impossible to recall, and so is not must be by nature universal,
process except the basic human accessible to the conscious mind. which means that they are found
ability to apply reason to the Innate ideas, on the other hand, in all human societies at all points
information that we gather through are believed to somehow exist in history. Plato, for example,
claims that everyone potentially
has access to the same basic
Locke believed the human mind is
like a blank canvas, or tabula rasa, at
body of knowledge, denying any
birth. He states that all our knowledge difference in that respect between
of the world can only come from our men and women, or between
experience, conveyed to us by our slaves and freemen. Similarly,
senses. We can then rationalize this in Locke’s time, the theory was
knowledge to formulate new ideas. Theory frequently put forward that because
innate ideas can only be placed in
us by God, they must be universal,
as God is not capable of being so
unfair as to hand them out only
to a select group of people.
Locke counters the argument
Experience
for universal ideas by once again
bringing to our attention that a
simple examination of the world
around us will readily show that
Tabula Rasa
they do no exist. Even if there
were concepts, or ideas, which
absolutely every human being in
RENAISSANCE AND THE AGE OF REASON 133
the Human Understanding. Leibniz
declares that innate ideas are the
one clear way that we can gain
knowledge that is not based upon
sensory experience, and that Locke
Let us then suppose is wrong to deny their possibility.
the mind to be white The debate about whether human
paper, void of all beings can know anything beyond
characters, without any what they perceive through their
ideas; how comes it five basic senses continues.
to be furnished?
John Locke Language as innate
Although Locke may reject the As the mind is a blank canvas, or
doctrine of innate ideas, he does tabula rasa, at birth, Locke believes
not reject the concept that human that anybody can be transformed by
a good education, one that encourages
beings have innate capacities.
rational thought and individual talents.
Indeed, the possession of capacities
such as perception and reasoning
the world held in common, Locke are central to his accounts of the Locke played an important role in
argues that we would have no firm mechanism of human knowledge questioning how human beings
grounds for concluding that they and understanding. In the late acquire knowledge, at a time when
were also innate. He declares that 20th century, the American man’s understanding of the world
it would always be possible to philosophy Noam Chomsky took was expanding at an unprecedented
discover other explanations for this idea further when he put rate. Earlier philosophers—notably
their universality, such as the fact forward his theory that there is an the medieval Scholastic thinkers
that they stem from the most basic innate process of thinking in every such as Thomas Aquinas—had
ways in which a human being human mind, which is capable concluded that some aspects of
experiences the world around him, of generating a universal “deep reality were beyond the grasp of
which is something that we all structure” of language. Chomsky the human mind. But Locke took
must share. believes that regardless of their this a stage further. By detailed
In 1704, Gottfried Leibniz wrote apparent structural differences, analysis of man’s mental faculties,
a rebuttal of Locke’s empiricist all human languages have been he sought to set down the exact
arguments in his New Essays on generated from this common basis. limits of what is knowable. ■
John Locke John Locke was born in 1632, the property. Locke fled England
son of an English country lawyer. twice, as a political exile, but
Thanks to wealthy patrons, he returned in 1688, after the
received a good education, first accession to the throne of
at Westminster School in London, William and Mary. He remained
then at Oxford. He was impressed in England, writing as well as
with the empirical approach to holding various government
science adopted by the pioneering positions, until his death in 1704.
chemist Robert Boyle, and he
both promoted Boyle’s ideas and Key works
assisted in his experimental work.
Though Locke’s empiricist ideas 1689 A Letter Concerning
are important, it was his political Toleration
writing that made him famous. He 1690 An Essay Concerning
proposed a social-contract theory of Human Understanding
the legitimacy of government and 1690 Two Treatises of
the idea of natural rights to private Government
