Locke’s theory of knowledge- Chapter 1, Of ideas in general and their original
Background information of John Locke
· Born 1632
· Died 1704
· Wrote his most important book, ‘An essay concerning human understanding’
· His work was allowed to be more influential as a result of the government falling into the hands of people who shared his opinion on philosophy.
· Locke was a Christian man, and was a believer in god but believed that religion should be kept private and should not interfere with politics.
An essay concerning human understanding-Of ideas in general and their original
· Locke’s main question within this chapter is; how do people come about the ideas they have?
· Locke’s example of ideas we have: ‘Sweetness, thinking, motion, man, drunkenness, army and others’
· Locke’s answer to this is his theory of Empiricism; ‘all knowledge is derived from experience’ rather than us having ‘native ideas stamped upon our minds’ this refers to Locke’s disagreement with the theory of innate ideas of Plato and Descartes.
· The theory of empiricism is that any knowledge that a person has comes from what they have witnessed through their senses; i.e. seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling things, which with experience; the foundation from which all our ideas are created and will provide us with knowledge.
· Contrasting to the theory of innate ideas which states that we have immediate knowledge imprinted on our minds from god at birth.
· Locke can break his theory down into three parts; sensation, reflection.
· Sensation is where our senses convey into our mind to give us perceptions about certain things, Locke’s example: Yellow, white, heat, cold; which are qualities which have the ability to be sensed and are the source of the majority of ideas we have. Sensation allows perception in understanding, remembering, reasoning and consideration.
· Reflection is the operation of our mind to ‘furnish the understanding with another set of ideas’ and is therefore the acting of our minds to reflect on the ideas which have been sensed; e.g. perception, thinking, believing, reasoning. This according to Locke is where the ideas take their beginnings and that no other idea we have could enter the mind other than this way. Reflection is the first step towards discovery of anything, according to Locke.
· Together sensation allows objects to be put into the mind where they are then perceived by the mind, which then makes an understanding of them which then becomes knowledge. Knowledge can then improve through remembering, imagining, reasoning and experience.
· Locke uses an example of a newborn child having a distinct lack of ideas and understanding of the world when they are newborn and instead as he gets older, observes and gains experience he gains knowledge through learning. This aids the child’s recognition of faces, objects and retaining of ideas the senses convey to it.
‘If a child was kept in a dark room until his adult years he would have little idea about anything-however a child allowed to use his sense would have more knowledge’ Good example.
Opinion: In my opinion this is a much more believable theory than that of innate ideas of Descartes which appears outdated by this theory. However I feel that innate ideas may still play a part in human knowledge such as a newborn child’s understanding of needing to feed, which Locke does not consider.
· However Locke does use another good example to strengthen his theory, with the fact that knowledge varies depending on the objects that a person ‘converses with’ allowing the mind to reflect more or less on these ideas, with reflection happening more in the later years of a person’s life as experience has increased.
· During this chapter, explaining his theory of the origin of ideas, Locke does come very close to describing innate ideas, contemplating a power within us which can think. This to me sounds like instincts; ideas which we know from birth, such as a bird knowing to migrate or a baby knowing it needs to feed.
· Locke also questions the theory that men in their sleep can think and believes that no ideas are learnt at night while a man is asleep. Locke could not see how a person could always think, and believed that without using a sense thinking could not happen.
· Locke uses the example of a person who can think and have emotions at night must have a dual personality; one at night and one during the day both of which have their own thoughts, sharing one soul. Locke believes more that we are without thought while we sleep, and therefore no learning takes place because we cannot unconsciously think; I disagree with theory.
· I also disagree that a person can learn new ideas or gain innate ideas from God while sleeping, but and instead feel that the reflection which Locke talks about in this theory is more likely, with the days learning being processed into knowledge.
· Locke’s way of dismissing innate ideas is that it is unlikely that God would implant ideas into the brain of a person while they sleeps without them knowing it for them to be mainly forgotten. He believes that this is a useless way of thinking, at that such a supreme being as God would not make us think in this way. Locke explains this theory by comparing this way of thinking with a looking glass retaining none of the information it takes in during the day. Locke questions why God would do this to allow information to be forgotten, as a man woken up from his sleep can remember very little about what he has dreamt.
· He combines this with the belief that any person who does believe that they think in their sleep is actually dreaming.
· Locke concludes his theory with the thought that the mind cannot reject simple ideas as they are imprinted on the brain passively; meaning that no man can be completely ignorant of what he does when he thinks, concluding this chapter and his theory on ideas in general and their original.
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