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John Locke And George Berkeley

Decent Essays

John Locke and George Berkeley are two respected individuals in the world of philosophy. These two brilliant minds impacted the philosophy and brought new ideas that are worth noting. John Locke is famously known for his belief in tabula rasa or blank slate. He believed that knowledge was not innate in humans at born, but it is learned experiences that give us knowledge. Example, a psychiatrist understands how to help a client with this problem that may be new to the psychiatrist because he/she would use what they’ve learned before to help that client. This example shows that we learn things through experiences and gain knowledge through our past experiences. Another example plays on Locke’s theory that are just objects that we add elements to it. It’s separated in two terms; primary and secondary. Primary refers more to just the shape, the weight, or location and secondary refers to the color, taste, smell, and other qualities that give us a sensation. Locke was also known for his belief in a concept he called, substance. This concept refers to matter and mind. Example, a physical object such as a car would be considered a matter, you can also think of it as something that takes up space and that is tenable. Now, thinking about how that car is operated and if it something useful in the future then that is what he called the mind. Also, the cognitive process was not tenable and was not mind then it would be considered mind. Berkeley in the other hand completely disapproved

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