Are Humans Born with Innate Ideas?

The debate between innate ideas and the mind being more of a "blank slate," as John Locke put it in the 1600s, has been raging since the time of Aristotle and Socrates. Even today there is debate over whether there are really innate ideas within the human mind that contribute to thinking and perception. Some psychologists and philosophers would say yes, others no. While at this point there are no definitive answers, there are arguments for both sides. For the purpose of information, I will argue on the side of innate ideas; however, these innate ideas will be specific and not aimed at the entire mind or the entire way we think.

When we think of innate ideas as ideas affecting every aspect of how we think and perceive things, it is a hard concept to grasp. Indeed, we all think differently, we all have different ideas, different likes and dislikes, different views on politics, education, even entertainment. Indeed, we also all have different experiences that shape us into the people we grow to be. This is part of the argument for innatism; the concept of having very basic, very low level innate ideas at birth which are more shaped or triggered by experience and environment than the other way around.

Before I go any further, what exactly are innate ideas? Innate ideas are ideas that we have regardless of experience, regardless of environment. Ideas that are present at birth so that every child has them. One prominent linguist, Noam Chomsky advocates innatism in terms of innate linguistic concepts. He argues that human's capacity for language is far too complex to simply be derived from experience and learning and that there must be some innate aspect that enables people to learn, grasp, and categorize language in the manner that we do. This seems to apply to not only the way in which we speak, but also the way in which our brains process and handle linguistic information. If you know a foreign language, or have even been exposed to one, you probably already know that all languages worldwide are fundamentally similar. When you learn a language, the grammar is often broken down in a manner that is similar to the way in which you initially studied English grammar. Subject + verb + object, Subject + object + verb, the comparison between Japanese and English respectively helps to put this concept of fundamental similarities between the grammar and formation of languages into perspective. That is to say, we have a very basic innate grammar function that aids us in language acquisition and comprehension even from an early age; that this linguistic predisposition is not created by our experiences or environment, but rather enhanced by it.

These aforementioned views by Chomsky on innate ideas are further supported by evolutionary psychologists who have also ventured to apply the concept of innate ideas to morality across cultures. In every culture morality is basically, fundamental similar. While differences do exist, and in some cases importance is placed differently, the basics of what human consider moral and immoral remain. Taking innate ideas away from morality, evolutionary psychologists apply the principles of innate ideas to Darwin's theory of natural selection. A theory which would support the acquisition of ideas that give humans an advantage in survival over those with the "blank slate" mind. (Tooby, Cosmides, & Barrett, 2005). While this argument goes deeper, this concept is the gist of the argument made through Darwin's 1859 natural selection paper The Origin of Species and applied to the concept of innate ideas. Even without acceptance in wide scale human existence from evolution, the concept of innate ideas being passed on, and forming over time and being passed on, aids in explaining our many adaptations to our surroundings. It additionally explains our ability to quickly adapt to new environments in order to survive. It seems we have an innate sense of survival that guides what we take in from our environment and keep and what we leave behind as meaningless or useless. An innate sense that is triggered by our environment and enhanced by it, but not created solely by the environment in which we reside.

Further support for the concept of innate ideas comes from analytical psychologist and psychiatrist Carl Jung, who suggested the concept of innate identity perceptions of self. Jung also argued with Freud over the idea of universal human memories, refusing to accept Freud's ideas on the unconscious mind.

Indeed, innate ideas are still a concept in much debate. Even the scholarly world is divided on what to believe and what to accept. Yet with such evidence as scholars like Chomsky and Steven Pinker (an evolutionary psychologist - one which specifically worked with the idea of innate morality) bring to the table, it becomes easier to understand, possibly even accept, the concept of very fundamental innate ideas in the human mind.

References:

Tooby, J., Cosmides, L. & Barrett, H. C. (2005). Resolving the debate on innate ideas: Learnability constraints and the evolved interpenetration of motivational and conceptual functions. In Carruthers, P., Laurence, S. & Stich, S. (Eds.), The Innate Mind: Structure and Content. NY: Oxford University Press.

http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/papers/innate05.pdf

Benson, E. (2007 May 25). SparkNote on Language. http://www.sparknotes.com/psychology/developmental/language

Myers, D. Psychology 8^th Edition. Worth Publishers.