An Essay Concerning Human Understanding free essay sample

An overview of John Lockes theories of the nature if ideas, thoughts and innate knowledge. This paper presents an overview of Lockes theories as outlined in his essay. His arguments against a priori knowledge and the effects of his ideas on scientific thought are discussed. Cross-cultural, psychological, sociological, and developmental examples Locke gives to back up his theories are presented. I deny not that there are natural tendencies imprinted on the minds of men; and that from the very first instances of sense and perception, there are some things that are grateful and others unwelcome to thembut this makes nothing for innate characters on the mind. With his Essay, John Locke effectively set the stage for the acceptance and practice of empiricism and the scientific method. Distancing himself from rationalists stemming back from Plato, the English philosopher argued against deductive reasoning pointing to a priori knowledge. Locke asserts throughout the Essay that the mind at birth is a blank slate and that none of our ideas are imprinted by either divine or natural sources. We will write a custom essay sample on An Essay Concerning Human Understanding or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page There are no prefabricated principles extant in the mind. Indeed, human beings can feel hunger, thirst, and pain, but our ideas about the world are based directly on sensory experiences. Hence, empiricism was born. Lockes arguments prove in many ways superior to those positions he refutes, for induction from the actual to the speculative supersedes deduction from the abstract to the real. The first book of the Essay comprises several chapters devoted to the refutation of the received doctrine that men have native ideas, and original characters, stamped upon their minds, (II, i, 1). Following this undermining of established philosophical principles, Locke proceeds to describe how the mind does obtain its knowledge of the world in Book 2: all ideas come from sensation or reflection, (II, i, 2). Sensory data precedes the formulation of ideas; our ideas do not and should not create our conception of reality.