John Locke

1630-1704

Liberalism

Locke believes that at birth, the human mind is a sort of blank slate on which experience writes. In Book II Locke claims that ideas are the materials of knowledge and all ideas come from experience. The term ‘idea,’ Locke tells us "...stands for whatsoever is the Object of the Understanding, when a man  thinks." (Essay I, 1, 8, p. 47) Experience is of two kinds, sensation and reflection. One of these -- sensation -- tells us about things and processes in the external world. The other -- reflection -- tells us about the operations of our own minds. Reflection is a sort of internal sense that makes us conscious of the mental processes we are engaged in. Some ideas we get only from sensation, some only from reflection and some from both.

We cannot create simple ideas, we can only get them from experience. In this respect the mind is passive. Once the mind has a store of simple ideas, it can combine them into complex ideas of a variety of kinds. In this respect the mind is active. Thus, Locke subscribes to a version of the empiricist axiom that there is nothing in the intellect that was not previously in the senses -- where the senses are broadened to include reflection.

Uzgalis, William, "John Locke", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Summer 2003 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.) URL://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2003/entries/locke/.

http://www.applestar.org/capella/Educational%20Philosophers.pdf