Compare And Contrast Descartes And Locke

Comparing Knowledge in Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy and Hume’s An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding,

12). I agree with the author. Although we have natural motor abilities we don’t learn without first being showed or taught what to do. For instance, as children we don 't know how to read when we are born, we are taught how to. Locke expands his thought when he says "For if the ideas are not innate, then there was a time when the mind didn’t contain those principles; in which case, the principles are not innate but have some other source.... " (Locke, Pg.13). To get a thought or learn something for the first time something needs to provoke the idea within us.

After reading the analysis of innate ideas of the two philosophers. I tend to agree with Locke’s argument that there is no such innate ideas. First, Descartes does not proving enough about how can we born with innate ideas? This major flaw eventually get to Locke’s tension and give us a strong evident of the young children should aware of truth if they have innate ideas in them. Second, I believe in Locke’s criticism about ideas only gain through our experiences and situations. Thus the more experience we have, the vivid picture about our external world we can perceived.

Throughout history, there have been many prolific philosophers and writers who have created works and writings that have advanced the way society thinks about their lives and what exactly they want from the world. What they presented ranged from something as simple as new ideas and theories, or as large as a revolution. There are some, although barring a few differences, that tried to present similar ideas and writings to cause a change in processes and a different mindset for the people. Take the theories from John Locke’s The Social Contract and Thomas Paine’s radical beliefs from The Age of Reason. Both of these men attempted to introduce a change in the way society thought and lived through both their own opinions and the idea that all people are entitled certain rights upon birth. The two had similar reasoning and ideals when they were describing their vision of an ideal society. Although the two presented their beliefs for different reasons, both John Locke and Thomas Paine’s writings resulted in a major impact on the minds of the people, as well as changes in society, for years to come.

This is where Descartes and Locke differ. Unlike most philosophers of his time, Locke believed people were born with nothing, even human nature. He thought that people were born in a state of “Tabula Rasa” () or born with a blank slate. “All men are created equal” (.)Meaning that at birth, people are empty of ideas and concepts, only able to attain knowledge from experiences. As people start to experience things through senses, their minds gain those concepts and ideas. Later as more concepts are gained they become grouped together as complex concepts. For example, if a young child saw a cat, a dog, and a horse they would eventually classify them all as animals. He was also a materialist. This meant that everything is made of matter and constant, so anything that responds to the senses is real. He also believed in determinism. Which is a path that everyone takes and cannot be changed in other words, people have a destiny or future and it cannot be altered. Locke believes that free will is an allusion a decision we think we are making, but really had no decision in the first

Descartes provides us with a great example of him sitting by the fire and holding a sheet of paper, only to tell us that this is a dream. He argues that if we have been so deceived by our dreams in the past whose to say we are not being deceived at the moment. Though it may seem as Descartes has no intention of believing in the reality and existence handed to us, he begins to define what truly is a definitive constant of reality. Realities, no matter the foundational structures they were built upon or senses that perceive it, Descartes quickly turns the table by proving that what we dream may be a fallacy, but it is not entirely imaginary as the eyes, heads, hands, and the whole body within the dream surely must exist. The standards and nature of animate objects that are dreamt must be drawn from the corporeal world we live in. Thus, we may be able to doubt the world, we cannot doubt that the corporeal objects exist that take up some form of shape and

The story “lord of The flies’’ by William Golding, the novel correlates to the philosophical opinions of John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. John Locke was an English philosopher that surmised man's natural moral compass would point towards good, Locke's philosophical writings stated “ that individuals in an state of nature would have stronger moral limits on their actions. Essentially, Locke thought that our human nature was characterized by reason and tolerance. People, Locke believed, were basically good’’ ( ‘‘Locke and Hobbes Overview 2’’). John Locke thought if people were given no rules they would make a paradise, flourishing in law, order, and structure, Thomas Hobbes believed people were naturally cruel and chaotic, with a need of a strong ruler to make decisions. Hobbes stated, “Who felt that mankind was inherently evil and required a strong central authority to ward off this inclination toward an immoral behavior, Locke believed that human nature allowed men to be selfish’’( ‘‘Locke and Hobbes Overview 2’’ ). Thomas Hobbes believed a strong iron-fisted ruler was needed for the safety and well being of a society. The ideals of man in a natural state, follow Thomas Hobbes philosophical view represented through Jack's brutish and monarch like attitude which lead to them living in a dystopian society.

Even though I maintain that this philosophies associated with Descartes along with Locke are wide and varied, this does not exclude an opportunity of characteristics. In reality, I believe there are several points associated with agreement between Locke along with Descartes. Locke 's Essay Concerning Human Understanding is not a direct attack with Descartes; in comparison, it is surely an account associated with epistemology which often, though not Cartesian, was influenced in part by Locke 's reading of Descartes. Locke borrowed a lot of Descartes ' philosophical thoughts and arguments and adopted much of his terms. I will now take into account four passages in which Locke seems to be drawing with Descartes: the notions associated with ideas along with qualities, the importance of dialect and purpose, God along with the will, along with universals along with classification. (Note that in these cases differences along with similarities could be found, but I am here choosing simply to address the similarities.) Locke 's notion in the idea is one of them of a new term assimilated from Descartes. Intended for Locke, a perception is that which ``the intellect perceives in itself, or may be the immediate item of perception, thought, or maybe understanding ' ' (Locke, 48). This is apparently exactly Descartes ' classification of idea: ``whatever will be immediately perceived because of the mind ' ' (Descartes, 132). Locke then goes on to look at the qualities (powers to generate

Descartes and Locke both had a process for understanding knowledge as well. As a rationalist, Descartes believed in innate ideas; that all humans were born with some knowledge (Paquette 206). This differentiates from the empirical view that the mind is a blank slate at birth (Paquette 211). Descartes also used intuition and deduction to establish truth (Kaplan 2008). He believed that intuition is direct knowledge which can be known without ever sensing or experiencing it (Paquette 206). Deduction however, is where you start with a premise, or a statement you

In addition, a point Locke addresses in his writing is to treat other the way would would like to be treated, to do on to others as you would want them to do onto you. Locke believed that in order to satisfy people's own needs they must first satisfy the needs of others. . Locke wrote in the “Second Treatise of Government”, “ A similar natural inducement has led men to realize that they have as much duty to love others as to love themselves” (Locke 3). He wanted other to realize that to receive affection they must first give it to others. Hester Prynne in “The Scarlet Letter” at the end of the novel started to receive the affection of the townspeople. They began to come to Hester for guidance with their problems and sorrows. Instead of seeing her as nothing but sin they started to admire her strength and ability to provide for herself and Pearl. Hawthorne

Locke discards the suggestion of innate ideas. Locke believes that if we always had innate ideas, it would be impossible for us not to perceive or be aware of them. He believes that if there were innate ideas then they would be universal ideas present

The study of knowledge, or epistemology, contains theoretical methods in which information is learned. Of these methods, there are two that are most widely accepted. Rationalism and empiricism are also the most widely debated methods of knowledge. Rationalism claims that a priori processes and intuition gain knowledge. Rationalism claims that knowledge is innate; but that it varies among humans. At the other end of the spectrum, empiricism claims that knowledge is gained largely by experience, observation, and sensory perception.

The purpose of the passage is to discuss the reasons why Locke is right in terms of disagreeing with the notions of innate. The way I will achieve this is by agreeing with points made by Locke against the principles of innate. According, to the innate human beings have specific knowledge when they are born that is they are born with some inborn knowledge. And according to Locke’s view point this is not true. He says that man gains knowledge and skills from his experience. I also agree with him, because a newborn infant does not know how to perform certain functions. He is fully dependent on his mother. And when he grows he learns everything from his

Such as Descartes, Locke wished to determine how the human mind acquires knowledge. He believed a newborn child was a blank slate and knowledge

John Locke (1632-1704) was the first of the classical British empiricists. (Empiricists believed that all knowledge derives from experience. These philosophers were hostile to rationalistic metaphysics, particularly to its unbridled use of speculation, its grandiose claims, and its epistemology grounded in innate ideas) If Locke could account of all human knowledge without making reference to innate ideas, then his theory would be simpler, hence better, than that of Descartes. He wrote, “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? To his I answer, in one word, from EXPERIENCE.” (Donald Palmer, p.165)