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John Locke Research Paper

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Throughout history there have been many significant philosophers that created questions about every aspect of life. From religion to reality, everything can be questioned in the eyes of a philosopher. Philosophy is the study of the fundamental nature of knowledge, reality and existence on an academic and logical level. Philosophers such as John Locke, St. Augustine, Bertrand Russell and George Berkeley all presented ideas and beliefs on the nature of knowledge and reality. However, looking at the extent and logistics of their arguments show us that not all philosophers have an ideal way of viewing things. When analyzing and comparing these four philosophers, John Locke's views are the most logical. John Locke was a seventeenth century philosopher. …show more content…

When Locke talks about the mind as a blank piece of paper he also makes reference to children. “...That if a child were kept in a place where he never saw any other but black and white till he were a man, he would have no more ideas of scarlet or green, than he that from his childhood never tasted an oyster or a pineapple...” This is a good example of the argument that nothing is innate because children do not know things until they experience and learn. In terms of philosophy, innate is the belief of an idea being inborn in the human mind. Locke proved this wrong again when he brought up religion also not being innate and that the idea of God is not innate. “ Since it is hard to conceive how there should be innate moral principles without an innate idea of Deity; without a notion of a lawmaker.” What Locke meant when he said this is that every religion is different and every religion follows different moral principles. If knowledge and understanding were innate then it would extend to everything. But since there are different religious views, different moral principles among different cultures, and different languages it proves that human understanding and knowledge is not innate. I agree with Locke's philosophy because this is where experience is most valid. Locke believed that experience gave us knowledge and that is sound. There are different ways of thinking throughout the world and through experience we have the ability to discover every

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