We are not a tabula rasa

[Hobbes' Choice]

When Locke talked about it he was rejecting the idea that man was born into original sin, that blacks and other non-white races were inherently inferior; and he was making a plea that every person could improve and make use of education. That in each of us was the potential to grow, change and progress.
In it historical context the tabula rasa was revolutionary.

This argument is now more about degree. None of us are born with a language. So on that level you can safely say that our existing potential for language, existing as cerebral structure is empty of content.
And whilst each child has a specialised area for recognising and remembering faces; we are not born with any knowledge of a face.

The entire tradition of Western Philosophy is bankrupt. The basis of the tradition's epistemology was a Cartesian skeptical crisis. This crisis led Rene Descartes to only conclude that he is some sort of disembodied mind which receives sense perceptions, and that he couldn't find a way to demonstrate the factualness of anything beyond that. This bandwagon was jumped on by a number of writers in the century following Descartes' Meditations. And the culmination of this (failed) epistemology was that, "All knowledge is derived from sense perception." In other words, we know absolutely nothing at birth, and we literally use deduction on perceptions alone, to produce all of our knowledge.

This tradition is based on wobbly foundations. ...
We can speculate -- perhaps the origin of human value was simply too complicated a subject for them to tackle in the time in which they lived.

Here's a thought experiment for you.
Take a baby and put it in a box.
Everyday place food in one end, and take the shit out the other end.
Come back in 21 years when the baby is now an adult.
The result is what a human has over and above the Tabula Rasa.
Without culture, learning, and stimulation humans are gibbering apes, able to eat and shit.

In fact everything that is important about us as people, is what we fill the empty space of our brain with with lived experience. What we are born with is the most gross definition of biological nature.


Do the same for a snake and you get a snake.

Humans are the animal on earth that relies least on instinct and innate propensity. Without learning he is nothing.
The tabula rasa is important where it is relevant, and an almost unique fact about higher animals, and humans in particular.

[GreatandWiseTrixie]

When Locke talked about it he was rejecting the idea that man was born into original sin, that blacks and other non-white races were inherently inferior; and he was making a plea that every person could improve and make use of education. That in each of us was the potential to grow, change and progress.
In it historical context the tabula rasa was revolutionary.

This argument is now more about degree. None of us are born with a language. So on that level you can safely say that our existing potential for language, existing as cerebral structure is empty of content.
And whilst each child has a specialised area for recognising and remembering faces; we are not born with any knowledge of a face.

The entire tradition of Western Philosophy is bankrupt. The basis of the tradition's epistemology was a Cartesian skeptical crisis. This crisis led Rene Descartes to only conclude that he is some sort of disembodied mind which receives sense perceptions, and that he couldn't find a way to demonstrate the factualness of anything beyond that. This bandwagon was jumped on by a number of writers in the century following Descartes' Meditations. And the culmination of this (failed) epistemology was that, "All knowledge is derived from sense perception." In other words, we know absolutely nothing at birth, and we literally use deduction on perceptions alone, to produce all of our knowledge.

This tradition is based on wobbly foundations. ...
We can speculate -- perhaps the origin of human value was simply too complicated a subject for them to tackle in the time in which they lived.

Here's a thought experiment for you.
Take a baby and put it in a box.
Everyday place food in one end, and take the shit out the other end.
Come back in 21 years when the baby is now an adult.
The result is what a human has over and above the Tabula Rasa.
Without culture, learning, and stimulation humans are gibbering apes, able to eat and shit.

In fact everything that is important about us as people, is what we fill the empty space of our brain with with lived experience. What we are born with is the most gross definition of biological nature.


Do the same for a snake and you get a snake.

Humans are the animal on earth that relies least on instinct and innate propensity. Without learning he is nothing.
The tabula rasa is important where it is relevant, and an almost unique fact about higher animals, and humans in particular.

Actually some abusive parents did that before.

The result was a girl who was rather feral, kind of like a demon or a lioness. She walked on all fours (the natural human state) sometimes upright, and possessed a rudimentary intellect, could be led by the hand and suggested to do basic tasks. She was rather skittish and violent, but could be tamed if treated with gentleness and kindness.