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Essay Plan on Innatism
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Innatism essay planintroduction Reject innatism- empiricist perspective
- Better explanation of knowledge, strengthened by hume's fork
Define innatism Innatism posits that we are born with universal a priori knowledge from birth, rather than
being acquired in virtue of empiricism.
Plato's slave boy P1. the slave boy has no prior experience/knowledge of geometry
argument P2. Socrates questions the slave boy on geometry, and does not teach him
P3. after questioning, the boy grasps geometric truths
P4. This eternal truth was not derived from the boy's prior experience, nor from socrates.
C. this eternal truth must have existed innately in the boy to begin with.
Objection- memory Perhaps the slave is simply using reason to work out what must be the case given certain
or the faculty of features of lines and shapes. It is not necessary to posit innate knowledge to explain how the
reason? boy can reason to the discovery of a geometric truth
Leibniz stronger form Innate ideas/principles definition. He believed that humans could gain knowledge of the
of innatism world through reason alone (prompted by the senses). Innate principles are uncovered
through reason.
Distinguishes between two types of truth, general and necessary
P1. the senses can only reveal instances of general truths
P2. the necessity of a general truth cannot be revealed by the senses
P3.Our minds can see the necessity of a general truth
C. Our ability to see the necessity of general truths is not derived from the snes, but is based
on innate principles.
Locke universal P1. innate idea, x , must be universal
assent P2. children and idiot do not have this
P3. if we hold an idea then we must be aware of it
P4. x is not universally held
C. therefore we do not have innate knowledge
Issue with P2 Children and idiots p2, children and idiots do actually employ innate principles in their
everyday actions, even if they cannot articulate the ideas into words. For example, a child
knows that their toy bear cannot both be in the attic and their hand simultaneously.
Transparency of To counter this, Locke uses P3, otherwise known as the transparency of ideas. If we did have
ideas innate ideas, the concept of God, then they must be present in our minds- not constantly, but
at some point . He claims our minds are transparent and we perceive all the ideas that they
contain. After all, if you have never had an idea/thought, then in what sense can it be in your
mind?
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