Philosophies of John Locke

The idea that human beings have a sense of innate knowledge, passed on by their ancestors, is one that has long been considered a myth-like explanation of why certain ideas and theories seem to come to people "out of nowhere". It is used to explain why there are some fundamental ideas that seem to carry throughout time, such as love, hate, murder, and greed. The explanation, of these ideas being innate, is not an argument that is supported greatly and is not, through the eyes of Locke, how humans derive their information. John Locke suggests that human beings are born with the ability to create their own knowledge through experience, and that it is only through this experience that we are able to learn. Therefore, human beings do not have innate ideas which are passed down through generations of people, but rather draw their own ideas from their life experiences.

John Locke was an English philosopher from the 17th century who wrote mainly about political philosophies but also about the nature and origin of learning, also known as epistemology. By studying the way that people learn, Locke was challenged with the decision of whether or not people had "a priori" knowledge, which meant that they had knowledge about something that they had no prior experience of. Locke, during his 20's, studied medicine at Oxford and eventually became a practicing doctor. The study of medicine, as is well known, can often lead a person to search for philosophies that lie outside of the mythical/religious spheres, philosophies such as alternative explanations as to why human being are the way they are.
Some might call the belief in "a priori" or innate knowledge mythical, and through the study of medicine Locke was possibly able to reject this theory in lieu for a stronger one that described knowledge as something that one must acquire for oneself. This would accurately describe the process of learning for Locke who was reliant on the more realistic and scientific, explanation for human learning; that it is impossible for one to have knowledge that is present from some other source other than one's own experience.

Locke, who was considered to be an empiricist, believed that human beings were born with a "blank slate", the mind, for which their experiences could "write" on. This idea, in itself, compares the human mind to something that is blank, that contains no previous knowledge to the process of experience. This, in itself, lays the foundation for the rejection of transcendental knowledge passed down from mythical wise ancestors. It is also through this statement that we can see that the idea of "a priori" knowledge is being rejected by Locke, who does not believe in it due to the fact that it means that a person has knowledge with out ever experiencing the thing that they have knowledge about.

John Lock states in his essay "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" that "Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE. In that all our knowledge is founded; and from that it ultimately derives itself." (Locke NEED CITATION INFORMATION, IS NOT ON WEB LECTURE). This quote displays to the reader that the process of knowing is solely based on the idea that we must experience something in order to obtain knowledge about it. Information can not be passed through generations and stored in the collective human psyche for all to retrieve information from, it must be gathered, stored, and examined independently for it to have true meaning.

All of these experiences, or ideas that we receive from our experiences, all amount to our body of knowledge. Since everything that we experience is a subjective truth it can be said that all of our knowledge is subjective as well. While our experiences can be argued as subjective and therefore conflicting, John Linnell states in his essay on Locke, "The abstract idea is a meaning." (Linnell 401). This means that even though each person may experience something in a different way as someone else does, they are still valid in believing the truth of their experience. The ideas that they gather from their individual experiences, are all subjective in nature but hold true and valid meaning to the person who has experienced them.
Once each of us experiences something in our daily lives, according to Locke, we are able to internalize it as a reality. We take in the experience; our mind works to decipher its meaning and its importance. We then are naturally inclined to think about the experience and try to comprehend its meaning. This is where we are able to find the most important knowledge. Through our examination of our experiences and ideas we are able to find some of the eternal and fundamental truths such as our purpose in life.

According to Locke there are different levels of knowledge that one can acquire from their experiences. One level would be to take the experience in, color, smell, each of the senses working together to create the ideas that we will gather about the object in our mind. The second way that we learn about things is to take the ideas we learn about something and use elements of that to create our knowledge about other things we encounter. This is exemplified through Linnell's example of what he can learn from a white piece of chalk due to Locke's method of learning;

"…I can take the whiteness of this piece of chalk as the representative of the whiteness of all objects. It is the perception of white which is an element in the perception of white as becoming the abstract idea of white by being separated of the circumstance of being accompanied by a set of other perceptions on a particular occasion."(Linnell 404).
Through this example it is clear that the idea of white, as an element of the chalk, is received by the mind and stored not only as a fundamental element of the chalk, but is also used as a reference point for the idea that one gathers about the color white. This representation of the color white is stored as a separate piece of knowledge, but is shared concurrently as an element of the idea of the chalk as well.

WORKS CITED

Cohen, Elliot D. "Reason and Experience in Locke's Epistemology". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Vol. 45, No. 1. September, 1984. 71-85.

Linnell, John. "Locke's Abstract Ideas". Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Vol. 16, No. 3. March, 1956. 400-405.

Locke, John. "Essay on Human Understanding" http://webct.ctdlc.org/SCRIPT/2254105210/scripts/serve_home