Innatism

Innatism

Our rational nature is the source of some(or alll) of our a priori knowldge.

Plato’s Slave Boy

• All knowledge is innate.

• We learned from our previous life and forgot due to the trauma of being born.

• Sense perception helps us recollect.

Argument: Innate ideas are not universally assented to

LOCKE if innate ideas existed they must be held by every one. infants and idiots do not hold the propositions Plato discusses.

Response: Innate ideas do not have to be held by everyone

• Infants and idiots may not have had reached the proper stage of development to trigger the ideas.

Necessary Truths

• True in all possible worlds, their denial is a contradiction and it is known a priori.

Contingent Truths

• True in some worlds, false in others. Their denial does not involve a contradiction known a priori.

Leibniz’s distinction between necessary and contingent truths:

1. If necessary truths exist then these must be innate.

   • Cant be from sensory experience no guarantee.

   • Experience can only establish a proposition is likely.

   • Inductive argument.

2. Necessary truths do exist, must be 2+2=4.

Conclusion follows.

Tabula rasa Thesis:

• Locke

• At birth, the mind is a blank slate with no ideas.

• Ideas come from sensations - the experience of objects outside of the mind perceived through the senses.

• Reflection, an experience of introspection gives ideas of perceptions.

Response: Dispositional innatism

• Locke has attacked a strawman a weak caricatured, misrepresentation of the innatists position.

• Innatists do not claim infants and idiots must have certain propositions.

• Infants have innate potential but not actualization the laws are not innate to know them are.

Meta-argument: The dispositional view makes all knowledge innate.

• There is something wrong with the dispositional point of view as it falsely implies all of our knowledge is innate.

• The capacity to know truths is innate but the knowledge gained is accquired.

Meta-criticism: The dispositional view makes some knowledge innate

• Claims the mind from birth has a natural grain which makes it predispositions to use certain principles not clues.

• Disposition - gain all sorts of knowledge.

• Predisposition - To beliefs like whatever is is, Hercules, marble.

Hume’s perceptions of the mind

• Locke fails to distinguish between mental entities, feeling and thinking.

• What we are immediately aware of are perceptions - mental content.

• Impressions of sensations - Through senses.

• Impression of reflection - Bodily sensations and emotions.

• Ideas - concepts,beliefs, memories are copies of impressions.

Distinguishing between impressions and ideas

• -our impressions will be more striking and lively than our ideas, but there may be some exceptions.

Criticism: Impressions and ideas are different kinds of things.

• We should not treat ideas as if they

  are simply less lively copies of impressions, otherwise we will have to accept some fairly absurd

  conclusions.

• Ideas and impressions are distinct kinds of objects.

Simple impressions

Cannot be broken down into smaller parts, like the Colour blue.

Complex impressions

Can be broken down further like brown horse.

Why think that all ideas derive from impressions? Concept empiricism.

1. Without a corresponding sensory experience we can form no ideas, blind no Colour.

2. All of our ideas, even very complex can be traced back to simple sensory experiences 'we’ve had, God = father figure.

Argument: We can form some ideas without experience

• Hume says we can form simple ideas not copied from impressions.

• if this is true we have an instance of refutation by counter example.

• Man experienced every shade of blue but one and with that he can imagine without impression but this is singular case.

Counter-argument: Mental Mixing

• Paints are mixed to produce colors so colours can be mixed too from either side.

Meta-Critique: Concepts with no sensory content - relational ideas

• Can be argued some ideas or concepts that do not appear to have sensory concept.

• like ‘on-topness’.

• Empiricism fails to give an adequate account of how we form various ideas that are meaningful.

Argument: Not all complex concepts are made up of simple concepts.

• If Hume cannot give us a satisfactory analysis of how we derive whatever counter example we choose from experience then concept does not originate from experience.

• Analyzing things like knowledge into simple constituents have failed.