Innatism

• What is innatism?


  The position that we have at least some propositional knowledge innately- it is in some sense already in the mind prior to experience
• What is plato's slave boy argument?


  -Plato describes Socrates talking to a slave boy 'Meno'

  -Plato mentions that Meno has no prior knowledge of mathematical truths or geometry

  -Socrates asks the boy a series of questions to which the boy replied

  -After a few questions Socrates manages to draw out the truth of a square from the slave boy

  -the length of side needed for a square with an area of 8 square units

  -Socrates didn't teach the slave boy, but instead simply asked questions
• What is meant by contingent?


  something that could have been either true or false: its truth value depends on the particular way our world turned out
• What is meant by analytic?


  a statement which is true or false purely on the basis of definitions/ meaning of the words

  for example- square has four sides
• What is meant by synthetic?


  a statement that is true based on facts about the world

  for example- ed sheeran has red hair
• What is meant by apriori?


  knowable without experience on the basis of reason

  for example- bachelor is an unmarried man
• What is meant by aposteriori?


  knowable only on the basis of experience

  for example- rich sunak is the prime minister
• What does the slave boy argument show?


  -According to Plato, this shows that learning is just a matter of remembering what we already know

  -Plato believed this could be explained by the pre-existing of the soul
• Explain Leibniz's argument from necessary truths?


  -Leibniz argues that necessary truths cannot be known through experience and therefore must be innate:

  
  

  -Sense experience can only ever give us knowledge of individual instances

  -Individual instances can only generate indicative generalisations; it cannot give us knowledge of what must be the case

  -This means that sense experience is not sufficient for knowledge that a truth is necessary

  -This means that necessary truths must be known innately

  
  

  Leibniz therefore concludes that while our knowledge of contingent truths could be based on experience, necessary ones must be innate: innatism is therefore true
• How can plato's argument be criticised?


  -Could be argued that the Socrates taught the boy

  -And that the slave boy was learning from his mistakes by getting the answers wrong

  -The questions are directed to help him apply understanding and work from his guesses to a correct answer

  -It could also be argued that ew may have some innate abilities for reasoning but this does not count as propositional knowledge
• How does Locke describe the mind?


  He describes the mind as a tabula rasa- only written on by our experiences

  Our mind is a blank slate

  There is no content which is already given to our minds

  SO doesn't agree with innatism
• How does Leibniz describe the mind?


  He views the mind as more of a block of marble

  It is already marked out by veins

  It is the use of reason and experience which triggers us to become aware of these ideas and truths imprinted on the mind
• Why does Locke argue no knowledge can be innate?


  -we have no reason to suppose a proposition is innate unless it is universally held

  -but he argues not all propositions can be universally heldd because children and 'idiots' do not agree to supposedly innate innate propositions, such as basic laws of logic
• What is a sensation?


  what comes from the five senses
• What is refection?


  the impressions we gain through experience of our minds and what it does eg thinking, willing, perception
• What is an idea?

  a concept that is stored in our mind

  thinking about the mug later on
• What is an impression?


  the direct content of experience

  this can be simple or complex

  eg mug in front of me
• How does Descartes argue we have an innate idea of God?


  Descartes argues that we have a concept of God as an infinite perfect being

  We have no experience of infinity or perfection

  This means that these ideas must be found innately rather than being generated by experience
• Response to necessary truths argument?


  They are true by definition so are analytic

  Don't need to have them as innate as learning definition
• Locke's argument from universal consent?


  If there is innate knowledge it is universal

  Children and idiots do not consciously know theorems in geometry

  There are no claims that are universally accepted by everyone

  For an idea to be part of the mind we must be conscious of it

  Therefore innate knowledge is knowledge that every human is or has been conscious of knowing

  Therefore these claims are not innate

  No innate knowledge
• Locke's transparency of ideas claim against innatism?


  He says knowledge is conscious in the mind

  It does not make sense for the mind not to be transparent to itself

  But innatism would suggest that our knowledge of things isn't transparent and we can have knowledge of things which we are not consciously aware of
• How does Leibniz defend himself from Locke's attack?


  Leibniz claims that children and idiots do actually employ the law of identity and the principle of non- contradiction in their everyday actions, even though they would not be able to articulate these ideas into world

  A child might not be able to say phrase, 'law of non-contradiction' but she knows her favourite teddy cannot both be in her hand and the loft at the same time
• What is another weakness in Locke's argument from universal consent?

  It could be the case that children and idiots do possess these innate ideas, but they are not aware they possess them
• How does Locke respond to Leibniz and other innatists claim that the idea is in you but you might not be aware of it but it becomes active in later life with the right stimulus?


  -Locke would reject

  -He would argue that this approach could be true of all ideas/ capacities, so how can we distinguish the innate ones from non innate ones

  -Why not say that the idea of the colour blue was in you from birth, but only when you see the colour blue does the idea/capacity become active

  -Everything the mind could ever know could be innate in this sense- Leibniz doesn't agree with this

  -So problem for the innatist is if it is possible to have innate ideas, but only come into our minds in later life, how can which ideas are the innate ones, and which came from experience
• Hume on innate ideas?


  Hume acknowledges many of our passions and desires, such as avoiding pain are innate to us

  -they are not copies of any particular impression

  -Indeed he claims that all our impressions can be considered innate, in the sense of being original and not copied

  -however our ideas are formed form copies and combinations of these impressions

  -In the sense, non of our ideas are innate, we are born with them because they are derived from impressions
• How can we argue against Descartes claim that the idea of god is innate?


  -because not universally held

  -because we have no experience of perfection and infinity
• How might an empiricist go about explaining the formulation of these concepts?


  -We can form an idea of God through manipulation of other ideas that we gain through experience

  -for perfection we can combine different goods and abstract them from imperfections- we can then combine these into the concept of a perfect being

  -And for infinity: we can think of a finite thing and remove the limitations of it to form of concept of infinity
• Humes copy principle?


  All simple ideas are copied from simple impressions
• Why argue that Hume's argument is the most crucial?


  Because it offers good explanations of the two kinds of truth we can know and neither of them requires innate knowledge
• What are empiricist likely to argue about necessary truths?

  That they are analytic (relations of ideas)