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John Locke Research Paper

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Throughout history there have been many significant philosophers that created questions about every aspect of life. From religion to reality, everything can be questioned in the eyes of a philosopher. Philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence on an academic and logical level. Philosophers such as John Locke, St. Augustine, Bertrand Russell and George Berkeley all presented ideas and beliefs on the nature of knowledge and reality. However, looking at the extent and logistics of their arguments show us that not all philosophers have an ideal way of viewing things. When analyzing and comparing these four philosophers, John Locke's views are the most logical. John Locke was a seventeenth century philosopher. …show more content…

When Locke talks about the mind as a blank piece of paper he also makes reference to children. “...That if a child were kept in a place where he never saw any other but black and white till he were a man, he would have no more ideas of scarlet or green, than he that from his childhood never tasted an oyster or a pineapple...” This is a good example of the argument that nothing is innate because children do not know things until they experience and learn. In terms of philosophy, innate is the belief of an idea being inborn in the human mind. Locke proved this wrong again when he brought up religion also not being innate and that the idea of God is not innate. “ Since it is hard to conceive how there should be innate moral principles without an innate idea of Deity; without a notion of a lawmaker.” What Locke meant when he said this is that every religion is different and every religion follows different moral principles. If knowledge and understanding were innate then it would extend to everything. But since there are different religious views, different moral principles among different cultures, and different languages it proves that human understanding and knowledge is not innate. I agree with Locke's philosophy because this is where experience is most valid. Locke believed that experience gave us knowledge and that is sound. There are different ways of thinking throughout the world and through experience we have the ability to discover every

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This is the idea that the mind is like blank paper without any ideas and is furnished by experience alone. While I don’t believe this is entirely true I think the ideas that stem from it are valuable as it is valuable to an extent. Education as Locke desires is a thing to improve the general capacity of the mind, not stuff it with facts or perfect it at a specific task. We see this concept in Franklin’s writing where he says “Experience keeps a dear School, but Fools will learn in no other” which means that experience is the greatest way to learn, and the way that all can learn, even the fool. The idea that education should be “a formation of character, of habits…of mind and body” (256) is one that should be paid attention to, because in the end one’s whole life is the issue, not just learning individual tasks and

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Andrew Johnson was doomed from the beginning of his political career when Lincoln asked for his vice-presidency. Johnson was an untrusted Southern Democrat that was not worth his weight in gold. After the assassination of Lincoln, the Radical Republicans had hoped his hatred for the planter aristocrats would help their cause in the form of the Wade-Davis bill. His rooted beliefs to help the less fortunate vanished when he realized his power over the southern aristocrats and passed the "10%" Reconstruction Plan instead. He pardoned the southern congress men, accused of treason, and continued to veto bills that would promote the freedmen.

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These four great minds are what shaped the future and paved a new way of thinking. They carved the world into what it is known as today. They were the ones who said that people make their own choices and should be given choice. They are the Philosophes. The great thinkers were John Locke, Adam Smith, Voltaire (Francois-Marie Arouet), and Mary Wollstonecraft.

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Many people experience a lack of nurture, their parents may not mold them into the perfect child they want them to be. Parents can’t necessarily form their child’s personality but the experiences your child goes through can change them in many ways. The assumption that a child is blank state that is formed only through experience by Locke is arguably more correct than a child’s upbringing is responsible for his education. In Frankenstein the monster is a good reason why the experiences he goes through by seeing a family for the first time, seeing fire, etc. changes him, because when he was born his mind was a blank state.

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However, this statement is not entirely true, if one mixes what one owns with what one does not own, it does not create self-ownership. Locke’s state of nature is then tainted and no longer includes equality and commonality among mankind. Locke repeats himself often in his arguments. He refers to his belief of natural reason and God’s words to deliver his theory of private property. He begins his discussion of property in the state of nature (Locke 6 sect.

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These ideas were expressed in his “Tabula Rasa Theory of Human Behavior”. In his writing, Locke says,”Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper, void of all characters, without any ideas—How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience.”

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Locke believes that our mind is empty and this relates to the Matrix because in the movie the minds is related to the empty room that Neo goes to when he is in between the matrix and the real world. Locke states that the mind is blank slate at birth but in the movie Neo was born into reality. He had no control over anything and had no understanding at all of anything. He was just the product of his environment and was molded by the environment. Showing that Neo was taught through artificial intelligence and later in the movie learned to beat the system comes close with Locke and how he implies that all knowledge comes exclusively through experience.

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John Locke, a famous empiricist, wrote the book: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding in response to Descartes’ Cartesian philosophy where he argues against the concept of innate ideas. Locke believes that at birth the human mind is “tabula rasa” or a blank slate and the only way to acquire knowledge is through experiences involving the senses and body. According to Locke, an idea is only innate if it is universally agreed upon, this includes children and the mentally handicap. Thus, because children and the mentally handicap do not have the mental capacity necessary for innate ideas, Locke concludes that they simply do not exist. Locke presents the notion that knowledge comes either from simple or complex ideas.

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John Locke’s philosophy is a child is a blank slate that is formed only through experience. One of Locke’s philosophies states, “A child who was taught morals, values and virtue would grow up to be a strong and principled adult, according to Locke's child development theories. As the saying "garbage in, garbage out" implies, Locke believed if a child watched and was taught immoral behavior he would follow that pattern”(Webb). The experiences that happen in childhood will help shape adulthood in either a positive or negative way. Locke also believed, “Whereas some may argue that children love play-games because they excite their imagination or desire for amusement, Locke argues that it is“liberty alone which gives the true relish and delight

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John Locke was a great and wise philosopher who influenced many others in their quest of success and life. John believed greatly in enlightenment which is emphasizing reason and identity rather than belief and tradition. He talks about how men are equal and independent and how they have the choice to ruin themselves by choosing bad decisions. John was a strong believer in equality and it doesn't matter there possessions or social status. John also believed that a man had his own will to do what he need to do and a will to live “And thus, in the state of nature, one man comes by a power over another; but yet no absolute or arbitrary power, to use a criminal, when he has got him in his hands, according to the passionate heats,or boundless extravagance

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The main thrust of Locke's criticism against innate knowledge is against the possibility of innate theoretical principles. Locke's argument against innate knowledge makes it difficult to say that if, in fact, there are any innate principles, then everyone would assent to them. There cannot be innate principles,

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Here it is proposed to seek the origin, certainty and extent of human knowledge. His intention was to apply the scientific method of his time to the study of mental operations. " Francis Bacon himself had not explored in depth the relationship between ideas and experience. It was Locke who continued the Baconian empiricism developed, which can be considered a precursor of the empirical psychology. " (Bowen, J.) Locke makes a classic formulation of English empiricism, as it tries to prove that the human mind no innate ideas.

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Locke concludes that a person is essentially a person and that a person is a thinking, intelligent being that has self-awareness of being one thinking thing that persists at different times and

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Therefore, based on the above, I am clearly in support of Locke's theory in comparison with the one his opponent. The distinct reasons why I consider such a position are discussed

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He said, “Therefore I doubt not but children, by the exercise of their senses about objects that affect them in the womb, receive some few ideas before they are born” (Locke, 1690, p. 134). He previously argued that one is born with tabula rasa mind like empty paper; however, he later acknowledged that children are born with ideas. Therefore, Locke’s claim showed contradiction. Based on the research, rationalists’ view of innatism that people are born with certain knowledge is more

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