1 UNIT 4 SUBMISSION.docx - Running head ARE WE BORN WITH A...

Running head ARE WE BORN WITH A BLANK SLATE (TABULA RASA) OR DO WE
ALREADY HAVE IDEAS IN OUR HEADS AT BIRTH?
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Are We Born with a Blank Slate (Tabula Rasa) Or Do We Already Have Ideas in Our Heads at
Birth?
Estelita R. Smith
American Intercontinental University

BLANK SLATE (TABULA RASA) 2
Are We Born With a Blank Slate (Tabula Rasa) Or Do We Already Have Ideas in Our Heads at
Birth?
An English philosopher named John Locke postulated the tabula rasa (blank slate) theory, which
states that people learn and aquire ideas from external forces, or the environment. Humans are
born with an empty mind, having no knowledge whatsoever. People aquire ideas from the
surrounding world, turning simple ideas into complex ones. This blank slate of mind starts off
devoid of any knowledge, but then it as is “written on” a person lives and experiences.
Therefore, a person has no identity until after birth.
The tubula rasa theory has strikingly similar charcteristics of the nurture theory because the
environment has the ability to shape an individual’s mind and experiences. Each new experience
serves as a stage of growth, expanding possibilities and gathering new knowledge. Both nurture
and tabula rasa view the environment and an individual’s surroundings as essential in forming
human traits.
If this theory holds true, then how are instincts and intuitions explained? The critics of the
blank slate theory state that the theory cannot hold true because then the mind would need to
have the “ ability to learn or apply knowledge.” An adjustment to this theory can be made so
that the ability to aquire knowledge is innate. Other than that, the human mind is a blank slate.