John Locke Blank Slate Quote
The blank slate idea has a long history in philosophy that goes back to aristotle.
John locke blank slate quote. According to locke thoughts begin by absorbing sensation and become more complex through reflection on what is sensed. Locke s notion of a blank slate also undermined a hereditary royalty and aristocracy whose members could claim no innate wisdom or merit if their minds had started out as blank as everyone else s. The blank slate theory is a theory proposed by british philosopher john locke that human minds start off empty as blank slates and are filled in by personal experiences.
Political applications of the theory strengthen arguments against hereditary aristocracy and slavery because if people are blank. John locke in his essay concerning human understanding restated the importance of the experience of the senses over speculation and sets out the case that the human mind at birth is a complete but receptive blank slate scraped tablet or tabula rasa upon which experience imprints knowledge. John locke s blank slate theory or tabula rasa expands on an idea suggested by aristotle in the fourth century b c.
Blank slate is a loose translation of the medieval latin term tabula rasa literally scraped tablet it is commonly attributed to the philosopher john locke 1632 1704 though in fact he used a different metaphor. Here is the famous passage from an essay concerning human understanding. The theory proposes that beyond a very few basic instincts our experiences shape us entirely.
