I'd wager that many students have grown up hearing of John Locke in some capacity back during their elementary and high school days, and his concept of tabula rasa. The theory of a blank slate at the beginning of our lives is actually very plausible and easy to want to accept, in my opinion. Locke uses children as examples multiple times in the reading. Children are a perfect example of our species' youth and an insight into just what, how, or why there could be a blank slate in our young minds.
"Let us then suppose the mind to have no ideas in it, to be like white paper with nothing written on it. How then does it come to be written on?"
"If you look carefully at the state of a new-born child, you’ll find little reason to think that he is well stocked with ideas that are to be the matter of his future knowledge. He gets ideas gradually; and though the ideas of obvious and familiar qualities imprint themselves before the memory begins to keep a record of when or how, ideas of unusual qualities are different."
"Children enter the world surrounded by new things that constantly attract their senses, beckoning to a mind that is eager to notice new things and apt to be delighted with the variety of changing objects. So the first years are usually spent in looking outwards at the surroundings..."
1) In section 6 chapter I on page 19, Locke says that there would be a way to arrange for a child to be raised where it would have very few ideas. This is an interesting proposal and I am wondering what that child’s upbringing would consist of in order for that to happen, or the other way around. Is there a way to raise a child that encourages it to have more ideas/ what does that consist of? 2)In chapter VII Locke begins to talk about pleasure versus pain and how it relates to sensation and reflection. In section 3 on page 28, he explains that God has given us “sensations with a perception of delight” for a reason. We would be very idle and lazy creatures preferring no nothing over the other if it were the case that we had no conception of pleasure or pain. I think what Locke says what makes people delight in or displease of different things is of course their individual experiences of sensation and perception. These two principles are different for every one of us, so no wonder there are so many varieties of what people perceive as pleasurable and of not.
1. When discussing the origin of ideas, Locke writes, “When does a man begin to have any ideas? I think the true answer is: when he first has some sensation” (22). When I read that idea, I wondered when Locke thinks that a person experiences sensation for the first time. Is it from the moment the baby is out of the womb, as many different objects are around him and then he comes to experience the world? Or is it prior, when the baby is still in the womb but is developed enough to move, and therefore through motion senses something? Fortunely, he replied to my doubts on page 34, as he states, "I am sure that children, by the exercise of their senses on objects that affect them in the womb, receive a few ideas before they are born" (34). Therefore, according to Locke, we possess perception and sense something, even before we come to experience the world we know.
2. In one of my psychology classes we learned about William James and his theory of Selective Attention and the Stream of Consciousness in which he states that we exist in an environment where our senses are constantly bombarded with sensory information, it is called a sensory overload. Somehow in all that stream of sensory information, we decide what information to focus on, what to make sense of, and the action we take on it. When I read Locke’s idea about perception, I immediately thought about James’ theory, as Locke believes that in perception the mind is mostly passive, as often the mind focuses on some things, while others occur at the same time, but we are not focused on them, although they might have an effect on our hearing, which would normally produce the idea of sound.
1. Locke's understanding of the mind as a blank slate is very interesting. In particular I found his connection of this concept to the minds of children to be of particular interest. He states at one point that children, if they are exposed to little, will learn to conceive of little. I don't know how this would actually play out in real life tough -- meaning outside of a thought experiment. It seems to me that a child's capacity for imagination is a limitless one, and is not restricted by the amount of sense perception they are able to access.
2. Another interesting aspect of Locke's was in chapter iii, page 24, when he classifies our ideas. He sets up 4 different types of ideas that we has and then lists them, "First, some come into our minds by one sense only. Secondly, others enter the mind by more senses than one. Thirdly, yet others are had from reflection only. Fourthly, some are suggested to the mind by all the ways of sensation and reflection." This was an interesting way of classification, however, I don't know if such hard lines can necessarily be drawn.
When Locke, talks about sensation and how man will begin to have ideas is when he has some way of feeling sensation, this makes me think is it after birth or whilst still in the womnb and can sense the external world in the womb or the physical world so they have some sort of sense perception.
I was confused when Locke brought up solidity and said "This idea of solidity marks off the extension of body from the extension of space," does this mean the body is in the middle of the idea and of the external world? The extension of space is a bit blurry to me.
Locke makes his ideas of what sensations are when he states, "When I say the senses convey ·these ideas· into the mind, ·I don’t mean this strictly and literally, because I don’t mean to say that an idea actually travels across from the perceived object to the person’s mind. Rather· I mean that through the senses external objects convey into the mind something that produces there those perceptions‘ideas’." Here, I believe Locke is explaining how ideas don't magically travel to the mind, but it is through the senses of the external object in which then, convey a particular idea in the mind. I like this passage because I find it to be the an accurate definition of Locke's thoughts on sensations.
2.Something I disagree with Locke is his theory on the mind while sleeping. Locke writes, "But I suspect that in sleeping without dreaming, the whole man is asleep—his mind as well as his body—so that in that state no thought is occurring." I believe while we sleep, we are still thinking, thus that's where dreams come from (our own thoughts). Locke later tries to argue that a man asleep is a different person than when he is awake. I don't agree with this theory and believe we always remain the same, asleep or awake.
1. Locke made an interesting point when discussing children and how their ideas are created. Every time I speak with my 5 year old nephew, he explains to me new ideas or concepts that I have not thought before. In Chapter 1 Locke states "Children enter the world surrounding by new things that constantly attract their senses, beckoning to a mind that is eager to notice new things and apt to be delighted with the variety of changing objects" (Locke 19). Young children especially toddlers, always want to tell adults what is on their mind. Their young minds are constantly moving and want to absorb their surroundings. They want to run around and touch different objects and figure out what it is or what the object does.
2. In Chapter 7, Locke discusses the simple ideas of both sensation and reflection. He goes on further to distinguish the similarities of about pain and pleasure. Locke states "Pain is as effective as pleasure in making us active, because we will work as hard to avoid pain as to get pleasure. It is interesting to note that pain is often produced by the same objects and ideas as produce pleasure in us" (Locke 28). I thought this was very interesting. I did not know this. As individuals, we try to avoid pain at all cost. There are countless different types of pain medications because individuals do not like pain.
1.) Here I find it interesting to see just how much Locke has taken from Descartes with regard to the substance question. However I find His idea that we cant ever truly know their inner qualities, to be a huge stepping stone in a serous attempt to examine the boundaries of human knowledge. 2.) In some sections of the text I found it interesting that he seems to believe in God to some extent, "the infinite wise author of our being has given us the power to move or not to move certain parts of our bodies.." (Locke 28). Considering his radical epistemological views for his time this has to mean that Locke believes that he can empirically prove the existence of God. I find this interesting because today it is widely accepted that this task is impossible, that there is no way to prove the existence of God through an experiment. Does this unveil a contradiction within Locke's thinking?
I'd wager that many students have grown up hearing of John Locke in some capacity back during their elementary and high school days, and his concept of tabula rasa. The theory of a blank slate at the beginning of our lives is actually very plausible and easy to want to accept, in my opinion. Locke uses children as examples multiple times in the reading. Children are a perfect example of our species' youth and an insight into just what, how, or why there could be a blank slate in our young minds.
ReplyDelete"Let us then suppose the mind to have no ideas in it, to be like white paper with nothing written on it. How then does it come to be written on?"
"If you look carefully at the state of a new-born child, you’ll
find little reason to think that he is well stocked with ideas
that are to be the matter of his future knowledge. He gets
ideas gradually; and though the ideas of obvious and familiar
qualities imprint themselves before the memory begins to
keep a record of when or how, ideas of unusual qualities are
different."
"Children enter the world surrounded by
new things that constantly attract their senses, beckoning
to a mind that is eager to notice new things and apt to
be delighted with the variety of changing objects. So the
first years are usually spent in looking outwards at the
surroundings..."
1) In section 6 chapter I on page 19, Locke says that there would be a way to arrange for a child to be raised where it would have very few ideas. This is an interesting proposal and I am wondering what that child’s upbringing would consist of in order for that to happen, or the other way around. Is there a way to raise a child that encourages it to have more ideas/ what does that consist of?
ReplyDelete2)In chapter VII Locke begins to talk about pleasure versus pain and how it relates to sensation and reflection. In section 3 on page 28, he explains that God has given us “sensations with a perception of delight” for a reason. We would be very idle and lazy creatures preferring no nothing over the other if it were the case that we had no conception of pleasure or pain. I think what Locke says what makes people delight in or displease of different things is of course their individual experiences of sensation and perception. These two principles are different for every one of us, so no wonder there are so many varieties of what people perceive as pleasurable and of not.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete1. When discussing the origin of ideas, Locke writes, “When does a man begin to have any ideas? I think the true answer is: when he first has some sensation” (22). When I read that idea, I wondered when Locke thinks that a person experiences sensation for the first time. Is it from the moment the baby is out of the womb, as many different objects are around him and then he comes to experience the world? Or is it prior, when the baby is still in the womb but is developed enough to move, and therefore through motion senses something? Fortunely, he replied to my doubts on page 34, as he states, "I am sure that children, by the exercise of their senses on objects that affect them in the womb, receive a few ideas before they are born" (34). Therefore, according to Locke, we possess perception and sense something, even before we come to experience the world we know.
ReplyDelete2. In one of my psychology classes we learned about William James and his theory of Selective Attention and the Stream of Consciousness in which he states that we exist in an environment where our senses are constantly bombarded with sensory information, it is called a sensory overload. Somehow in all that stream of sensory information, we decide what information to focus on, what to make sense of, and the action we take on it. When I read Locke’s idea about perception, I immediately thought about James’ theory, as Locke believes that in perception the mind is mostly passive, as often the mind focuses on some things, while others occur at the same time, but we are not focused on them, although they might have an effect on our hearing, which would normally produce the idea of sound.
1. Locke's understanding of the mind as a blank slate is very interesting. In particular I found his connection of this concept to the minds of children to be of particular interest. He states at one point that children, if they are exposed to little, will learn to conceive of little. I don't know how this would actually play out in real life tough -- meaning outside of a thought experiment. It seems to me that a child's capacity for imagination is a limitless one, and is not restricted by the amount of sense perception they are able to access.
ReplyDelete2. Another interesting aspect of Locke's was in chapter iii, page 24, when he classifies our ideas. He sets up 4 different types of ideas that we has and then lists them, "First, some come into our minds by one sense only. Secondly, others enter the mind by more senses than one. Thirdly, yet others are had from reflection only. Fourthly, some are suggested to the mind by all the ways of sensation and reflection." This was an interesting way of classification, however, I don't know if such hard lines can necessarily be drawn.
When Locke, talks about sensation and how man will begin to have ideas is when he has some way of feeling sensation, this makes me think is it after birth or whilst still in the womnb and can sense the external world in the womb or the physical world so they have some sort of sense perception.
ReplyDeleteI was confused when Locke brought up solidity and said "This idea of solidity marks off the extension of body from the extension of space," does this mean the body is in the middle of the idea and of the external world? The extension of space is a bit blurry to me.
Locke makes his ideas of what sensations are when he states, "When I say the senses convey ·these ideas· into the mind, ·I don’t mean this strictly and literally, because I don’t mean to say that an idea actually travels across from the perceived object to the person’s mind. Rather· I mean that through the senses external objects convey into the mind something that produces there those perceptions‘ideas’." Here, I believe Locke is explaining how ideas don't magically travel to the mind, but it is through the senses of the external object in which then, convey a particular idea in the mind. I like this passage because I find it to be the an accurate definition of Locke's thoughts on sensations.
ReplyDelete2.Something I disagree with Locke is his theory on the mind while sleeping. Locke writes, "But I suspect that in sleeping without dreaming, the whole man is asleep—his mind as well as his body—so that in that state no thought is occurring." I believe while we sleep, we are still thinking, thus that's where dreams come from (our own thoughts). Locke later tries to argue that a man asleep is a different person than when he is awake. I don't agree with this theory and believe we always remain the same, asleep or awake.
1. Locke made an interesting point when discussing children and how their ideas are created. Every time I speak with my 5 year old nephew, he explains to me new ideas or concepts that I have not thought before. In Chapter 1 Locke states "Children enter the world surrounding by new things that constantly attract their senses, beckoning to a mind that is eager to notice new things and apt to be delighted with the variety of changing objects" (Locke 19). Young children especially toddlers, always want to tell adults what is on their mind. Their young minds are constantly moving and want to absorb their surroundings. They want to run around and touch different objects and figure out what it is or what the object does.
ReplyDelete2. In Chapter 7, Locke discusses the simple ideas of both sensation and reflection. He goes on further to distinguish the similarities of about pain and pleasure. Locke states "Pain is as effective as pleasure in making us active, because we will work as hard to avoid pain as to get pleasure. It is interesting to note that pain is often produced by the same objects and ideas as produce pleasure in us" (Locke 28). I thought this was very interesting. I did not know this. As individuals, we try to avoid pain at all cost. There are countless different types of pain medications because individuals do not like pain.
1.) Here I find it interesting to see just how much Locke has taken from Descartes with regard to the substance question. However I find His idea that we cant ever truly know their inner qualities, to be a huge stepping stone in a serous attempt to examine the boundaries of human knowledge.
ReplyDelete2.) In some sections of the text I found it interesting that he seems to believe in God to some extent, "the infinite wise author of our being has given us the power to move or not to move certain parts of our bodies.." (Locke 28). Considering his radical epistemological views for his time this has to mean that Locke believes that he can empirically prove the existence of God. I find this interesting because today it is widely accepted that this task is impossible, that there is no way to prove the existence of God through an experiment. Does this unveil a contradiction within Locke's thinking?