A Discussion of Descartes vs. Locke Debate on Innate Ideas

In this paper I will discuss the Descartes vs Locke debate on innate ideas, also giving insight on what an innate idea means. Each philosopher takes a very different stand on the issue and each point of view will be thoroughly examined. The main question at hand here is, where do our ideas come from?

The controversy and basis of the argument is that some philosophers and others believe that human beings have innate knowledge or ideas. The others deny it. What seems to be black and white turns grey when one asks, what is it to have innate knowledge or an innate idea? Therefore, when analyzing the debate over innateness, we must look at what we mean if we say someone knows something or has ideas innately (Stich 1).

For the purpose of understanding, we can look back on historical caveats. Plato, for example, seemed to believe that all knowledge is innate. The problem with Plato's view is, only part of what we think we know, is known innately (2). Plato does not try to enlarge the concept of innateness to cover all knowledge, but rather he tried to minimize the concept until it fits what we know innately.

Order custom essay A Discussion of Descartes vs. Locke Debate on Innate Ideas with free plagiarism report

450+ experts on 30 subjects Starting from 3 hours delivery

Get Essay Help

According to Webster's dictionary, innate means existing in or belonging to an individual from birth, or, belonging to the essential nature of something. When trying to define innateness, Descartes says he is using it in the same sense of the word as when we say certain diseases are innate. So what does it mean to have an innate disease? A disease is prefaced with a unique set of symptoms. Therefore, there is a relationship between symptoms and the disease itself.

We could safely say that a person could have a disease all along but not know it until the symptoms appeared. This occurrence is actually quite common. It also draws a parallel to innate knowledge. Those who advocate the doctrine of innate knowledge are often willing to attribute such knowledge to a person even though he has not yet come to believe the proposition he is alleged to know (4). In other words, people who believe in innate knowledge would say that a person has innate knowledge but may not be aware of it quite yet.

It gets slightly blurry when we recognize that there are two sorts of innate infirmities. There are those whose symptoms are present at birth and those whose symptoms that appear later in life. Unfortunately, it is often unclear whether a person is afflicted with an innate disease or susceptible to a non innate disease.

In short, one can have a disease innately without showing its symptoms at birth. Similarly, one can have a belief innately without believing it at birth because it is often hard to determine if someone was born with a disease or if they developed it later in life. If you do not see the symptoms until later in life it may be hard to tell. You could have had the disease since birth and just began to get symptoms now or you could have just developed the disease. This is the same as innate ideas or knowledge because if an idea or knowledge occurs later in life it is hard to determine if they had that idea all along or if that idea was just learned.

Don't let plagiarism ruin your grade

Run a free check or have your essay done for you

Check my essay Hire Writer