Philosophy / Unit 2 Philosophy 0068 short lesson, about 20 seconds
Locke's Blank Slate
Captions available
The idea
Locke's blank slate: the mind begins without innate ideas—like white paper—and all its materials arrive through experience and reflection.
In practice
A child raised without ever seeing red, Locke argues, has no idea of red. Ideas trace back to encounters.
Where people slip
Locke allows innate capacities—memory, comparison, abstraction. The slate is blank; the machinery is not.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Builds on
Unlocks
- Nothing yet depends on this.
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