innate ideas Flashcards
(15 cards)
What are innate ideas?
Ideas that are present in the mind from birth and not derived from experience.
What is empiricism?
The philosophical view that all knowledge comes from sensory experience.
What is rationalism?
The view that some knowledge is gained independently of sense experience, often through reason or innate ideas.
Which philosophers support innate ideas?
Rationalist philosophers such as Descartes, Leibniz, and Plato.
What is Descartes’ main argument for innate ideas?
The concept of God as a perfect being cannot come from imperfect beings like ourselves, so it must be innate.
What is the wax argument?
Descartes’ thought experiment showing that sensory properties change, yet we know it’s the same wax through reason, not the senses—supporting innate understanding.
How does Plato support innate knowledge?
Through his theory of recollection—learning is remembering knowledge the soul had before birth.
What is Leibniz’s response to Locke’s blank slate?
He argues the mind is like ‘veined marble’—experience helps reveal what is already there innately.
What is Locke’s criticism of innate ideas?
He claims there are no universally agreed-upon principles; even children and idiots don’t know supposed innate truths.
What does Locke mean by the mind as a ‘tabula rasa’?
That the mind is a blank slate at birth and all ideas come from experience.
What is the difference between simple and complex ideas in Locke’s theory?
Simple ideas come from experience; complex ideas are constructed by the mind from simple ones.
What is a necessary truth, and how is it used to support rationalism?
A truth that cannot be false (e.g., 2+2=4); rationalists argue such truths can’t come from experience.
What is the argument from universality?
Rationalists argue that if some ideas are universal (e.g., morality), they must be innate.
How do empiricists respond to the universality argument?
They claim these ideas are learned through shared experience and language, not innately known.
How does modern cognitive science contribute to the innate ideas debate?
It suggests that some aspects of language or logic may be hardwired, supporting a limited form of innateness.
