Innate Knowledge

Innate Knowledge

Locke: Ideas for which we do not need experience, those which can be known from birth (as an empiricist, Locke found innate knowledge to be impossible)
1. Universailty: If innate ideas exist, it is supposed they will be held universally by all humans
2. Locke (CRIT): Babies cannot explain geometry
  1. RESP: Practical Knowledge
    1. CRIT: Refers to no factual knowledge about the world, therefore does not dispute Claim 2
      1. RESP: All forms of knowledge amount to practical knowledge e.g. factual knowledge is the ability to answer questions in exams, scientific knowledge is the ability to make accurate predictions about the world
This theory acknowledges that most ideas come from experience, however rationalists claim that a priori knowledge in the only knowledge
Innate Ideas/Knowledge
1. Innate Instincts e.g.suckling
  1. Difficult to define instinct as 'knowledge' e.g.does a heart know when to beat?
2. Descartes: Idea of God planted in our minds by God (Trademark)
3. Kant: We have an innate conceptual scheme and so innate knowledge of causation
4. Chomsky: We have an innate capacity to learn language, this is how we are able to so easily pick up grammar from limited evidence. All languages share deep grammatical structure and so this knowledge is universal
5. Moore (intuitionaism): Moral concepts do not come from experience. 'Good' cannot be defined but is simply known intuitively
  1. E.g. Good is like the colour yellow, which cannot be defined. Moral terms are self-evident
    1. O.Q.A: Good cannot be defined as this means 'Good means x'>'Is x really good (e.g. is it really good to maximise happiness) so Good does not equal maximising happiness because this would mean 'is good really good?' Concl: Good is undefinable
      1. CRIT: Meaning of word 'good' is unclear in ordinary language, so we are unwilling to accept a definition. Hume: Emotions account for morality, the emotional responses are somewhat innate, but are not moral ideas
6. Plato: Numbers are innate as we have no sense experience of them e.g. pair of gloves but no 'two-ness'
  1. '2' is contained in the realm of pure thought
    1. CRIT (Empiricist): Numbers derive from collections in experience, 3 is a common denominator
      1. RESP: I have never encountered a group of 5,381. Descartes:I understand a chiliagon whilst I cannot picture it in the mind
    2. As are concepts of justice & beauty, perceived by observation of their essential qualities
      1. CRIT (Empiricist): Understanding of beauty through experience
7. Reason alone can generate knowledge
  1. E.g. Mathematics
  2. Colour: We know that an object cannot be orange if it is blue all over
    1. This is a truth about the world
      1. CRIT (Empiricist): Example given relies on the senses and so does not constitute innate knowledge
        CRIT (Empiricist): Concept of chiliagon derives from experience of similar shapes
        RESP: Mathematical truths are innate
Types of Knowledge
1. Practical Knowedge e.g. I know how to swim but cannot explain how to someone else (independant of ability to communicate)
2. Knowledge by Acquaintance e.g.I know what Paris is like because I have visited it
3. Factual Knowledge can be expressed in language & contains propositional context e.g.'Socrates was a philosopher'

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	Created by louisge about 11 years ago