Topic > John Locke's Tabula Rasa Theories

IndexPhilosophyScienceConclusionThroughout history, psychology has taken shape and developed into an essential field of science in modern times. The origins of psychology are deeply rooted in the field of philosophy and date back to the ancient Greeks with recognizable names like Aristotle and Plato, who began to contemplate the causes of human behavior even before physiology and anatomy linked the brain to behavior. Many philosophers have attempted to explain the basis of our behavior, but few have been influential and ingenious enough to not only change the face of psychology, but take it in a new direction and devise theories that are still considered relevant today. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay With the growing popularity of psychology in the field of philosophy, it was only a matter of time before psychology captured the interest of academics with a more scientific approach to determining and explaining the causes of human behavior. Following in the footsteps of Wilhelm Wundt and William James, the founding fathers of modern psychology, many scientists have clamored to disprove current theories. As the centuries pass and our knowledge and technology continue to advance, few philosophers and scientists have been so close to reality. they mark with their theories the fact that they have influenced the field so much and remain a vital part of our research, experiments and theories today. John Locke, a 17th century English philosopher, and Charles Darwin, a 19th century naturalist and scientist, are two men who fall into that category. John Locke's theories on how we gain knowledge were a turning point in child psychology in a time when children were meant to be seen and not heard. His beliefs are still valid today, when the dispute between nature and nurture comes into play. Charles Darwin catapulted functionalism to the top of the pack in the field of psychology and opened psychology to all fields of research and data collection involving human behavior. Darwin's theory of evolution is still the center of attention in many fields of psychology and was one of the most important developments, to date, in the field of psychology. Philosophy John Locke was one of the many philosophers of his time who believed that knowledge was gained through experience and is often identified as the first of the great English empiricists. This title is often bestowed upon him because of his book, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, in which one of his most substantial goals was to determine the limits of human understanding. Although his most important life work was in the political arena, Locke put the same ideas into practice in the field of psychology. Locke's contempt for authority leads him to extend his beliefs beyond politics; he wanted people to use reason to seek truth rather than simply accepting the opinion of authorities or basing their beliefs on superstition. Locke disagreed with Descartes' theory that knowledge can be innate, knowledge that we acquired without experience and developed by our consciousness. This is where his political ideas and his philosophical ideas intersected. Locke believed that we were obliged to acquire knowledge and not just accept what we were told; knowledge is not innate, our mind acquires simple information and constructs complex ideas. Locke subscribed to the same basic idea that, as Aristotle had, hundreds of years earlier, the mind is a blank slate, or clean slate when we are born.He applied this concept to children, which was quite radical for that time. Locke argued that children are not innately bad, they are born with this blank slate and their experiences are substantial in deciding their characteristics as adults. He believed that children develop bad habits of thinking and in order to dissuade this, children needed to be taught to base their beliefs on strong, fact-based notions rather than simply believing what is to be understood as fact. This idea of ​​a clean slate is still held by psychologists today. This is the same as the nature versus nurture theory. Locke simply believed that everything is nourished and that what we become depends on our environment and what we experience. He urged parents to spend time with their children and guide them to help them become honorable members of society. While we now know, based on years of research and study, that heredity and genetics are part of what decides our fate as we become adults, the experience is highly implemental for our emotional and social development. Locke's argument was based on two different types of experience, sensation and reflection. Sensation is based on external experiences such as color, sound and movement, and reflection is based on internal experiences, which cause the mind to reflect on these sensations we have experienced and form thoughts and ideas, building our knowledge. This is where we gather our simple ideas, which then develop and transform into complex ideas. Sensation helps us form simple and very basic ideas. Reflection of those sensations leads us to add together those stored simple ideas to form a complex idea, thus adding to our knowledge base. “The notion of combining or composing ideas and the converse notion of analyzing them mark the beginning of the mental-chemical approach to the problem of association.” Pairing is, simply put, learning. Science Charles Darwin is probably one of the most renowned scientists who developed one of the most debated theories in history, the theory of evolution. Darwin's ideas began to formulate while he was acting as a naturalist on a five-year voyage on HMS Beagle. While aboard the Beagle, Darwin kept meticulous notes of his observations and collected countless biological and geological samples that were sent back to England. From these notes and specimens, Darwin wrote three books on South American geology, published numerous scientific articles on zoology, and began his notebook on the transmutation of species. After his return, Darwin began communicating with breeders, zookeepers, naturalists, and gardeners to gather facts and evidence to support his theory of evolution. Two years later, Darwin was enraptured by a two-year-old orangutan named Jenny, on display at London Zoo. He was so won over by Jenny that he returned several times to observe and interact with her until she died of illness after only two years of captivity. Darwin's reaction was that of profound amazement evident in his notebook: "Let man visit the Orangoutang in the process of domestication, see his intelligence and then boast of his proud pre-eminence... Man in his arrogance believes himself a great work, worthy of the interposition of a divinity. More humble, and I believe true, to consider it created by animals”. life forms from air and water. Century before Darwin's birth, the German philosopher Immanuel Kant had a theory that closely resembled Darwin's hypothesis that all life forms came from a single ancestor the shapes.