past paper, JUN 2011

Assess the claim that all knowledge and ideas derive from sense experiences. (30 marks)

plan:

paragraph 1:

• tabula rasa (locke)- agrees with claim- attacks innate claim (children + idiots), nothing the mind knows from birth
• counter-argument: children + idiots don't know to use reason 
• locke: not reason, but concepts that are needed e.g. EQUALITY needs to be known to do 2+2=4

John Locke, an empiricist, would agree with the claim that all knowledge and ideas derive from sense experience - his argument is that the mind is a 'tabula rasa', meaning it is 'empty' from birth (a blank slate), this means that sense experience is necessary to obtain knowledge. To support his argument, he argues that the opposite statement - that knowledge and ideas are innate - is false. He questioned that if we had innate ideas from birth, then there would be ideas that every single person would know, (even children and 'idiots') which, he argued, there are not, therefore ideas cannot be innate.

(CONTINUE WHEN HAVE POSTER AVAILABLE)