Question

(Introduction to Psychology)

Explain and discuss John Locke's concept of a tabula rasa. What are the strengths of this view? What are its weaknesses? 300 words

Answer 1

"Tabula Rasa" is a concept proposed by John Locke and he stated the importance of the experiences of the senses over speculation and he gave propose the statement that "Human mind at birth is complete, but receptive, blank state" which is named Tabula Rasa upon which experience imprints knowledge. Lock argued that people aquire knowledge from the information about the objects in the world that our senses bring.

Srength of this theory:

One of the tabula rasa strength lie with the idea that it is more intutive than rationalistic approaches. Locke argued that the approach is more readily acceptable since our sensations match our reality and it is more difficult for us to accept we have knowledge of someting before we experience it.

Another strength is that this theory states that we are born a blank state. An example of this is when children who have been abandoned very young and have been care of by animals, they have none of the knowledge that we exept from the child who have raised in human society. This means that mind must be a blank state since it is manipulated by the human surroundings.

Weakness of this theory:

first of all, we can logically say that complex ideas can be broken into simpler ones, but problem arise when considering some simple ideas. It implies that there is a more complex structure of objects that goes beyond our senses.

Another one is that senses are not shown to be the sources of all knowledge because they are more vivid. However it does not logically follow that being vivid means they are more likely to be a source of knowledge.

Our idea of infinity does not relate to any sense experinece, we do not experience infinite objects or characteristics with our senses.

we cannot break down certain words into sense impressions. It is much more difficult to break down words such as "On " and "Besides" to specific sense data, as they are rational concepts. Also the way we conceptualise our experience of ourselves and society leads us to develop terms that do not relate directly to the senses, Justice and Beauty cannot be explained only through the discussion of senses. Althoug there is no corresponding sense impression to these words, we could not have any of these words without the sense impressions that lead us to develop them.

Finally, we cannot say that all knowledge comes from the senses, we can still say that all significant knowledge comes from the senses. Basically our senses may not always be reliable, beacause our senses are subject to illusion.