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John Locke: Innate Ideas And Perceptions Of The World

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OUR IDEAS AND PERCEPTIONS OF THE WORLD
Is the way we perceive the world, really the way the world is? John Locke, a well-known figure in the world of Philosophy, is an first and foremost an Empericist although he also seems to follow the views of a Representational Realist, also known as a Representationalist, when it comes to the way we perceive the world. This means that he believes the world and how we experience it, is dependent on our minds and perceptions. To make sense of this, Locke introduced an argument of primary and secondary qualities on the objects of the world.
Locke begins his essay, aptly named: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, by questioning Rene Descartes and his rationalist view of innate ideas. Descartes’ argument explaining innate ideas as being all our ideas stored in our minds and souls by a higher power, God, so that our thoughts are dependent on our mind to fulfil our purpose in life. Locke challenges this by pointing out that it does not make sense to have an innate idea about something if you have not perceived it yet (Locke, 1689). Locke then uses the example of children. If children have to learn as they develop and grow older then surely their knowledge is not innate, as according to Descartes, even a baby would have knowledge. Locke then …show more content…

According to Locke (1689, p.5), we have simple ideas when “the ideas they produce in the mind enter by the senses simple; and unmixed.” This means that when we see an object, our senses perceive the object as it is, a whole. For example, when we observe a cup, the colour, texture and temperature; the characteristics are perceived together and we see the cup. This is a simple idea. Locke suggests that simple ideas, like matter and energy, cannot be created or destroyed but can only be thought of, perceive and reflected on by

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