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Locke. Tabula Rasa. Assumes we are born as if with a blank slate or white paper. All knowledge is learned from experience. No innate knowledge Ergo., no a priori necessity. Denies Innateness. Descartes uses the notion of an innate idea of god to argue that there is a physical world
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Tabula Rasa • Assumes we are born as if with a blank slate or white paper. All knowledge is learned from experience. • No innate knowledge • Ergo., no a priori necessity.
Denies Innateness • Descartes uses the notion of an innate idea of god to argue that there is a physical world • Without this argument Berkeley is able to argue that a physical world of Matter introduces an unneeded complexity provided that we can rely on law like regularity. • The challenge is to affirm Matter while denying innateness.
Against Innate Ideas • Locke argues that innateness is false • Assuming perceptual experience, representation and recombination is enough to infer matter. • Primary – extension, solidity, time • Secondary – color, smell, etc.
Knowledge is on a continuum • Certainty is relative. Absolute certatianty is unnecessary. • General terms & names – define concepts via conventions and grammar. Perception is to ideas as Motion is to objects, i. e., not essential merely an operation.
Empiricism • Locke is the Modern father of empiricism, the notion that knowledge can be arrived at through sensory experience and induction. • Deductive reasoning is secondary and parasitic on knowledge gained from sensory experience.
