Innatism (Epistemology)

Question 1

What is Plato’s innatism?

Answer 1

Meno’s slave- Socrates draws a square with a diamond inside on the ground in front of a slave boy who has had no mathematical teaching. Socrates then draws a diamond inside the square. The slave boy is able to explain, and correct himself when making a mistake. He was able to make an innate mathematical claim.

Question 2

Empiricist response to Meno’s slave

Answer 2

We gain CONCEPTS through experience and gain knowledge through analysing the concepts.

Question 3

Locke’s critique of innatism

Answer 3

The mind is a tabula rasa at birth.
1-If a proposition were innate then it would be universally assented to, meaning everyone would be know it because everyone would be born with it. Universal assent is therefore a necessary condition of innate knowledge. However, children and idiots do not know the supposedly innate propositions.
2-Even if there was a proposition that was universally assented to, that wouldn’t necessarily make it innate. There could be some other explanation of how everyone came to know something other than it being innate. For example, there could be something universal about experience in general, or about the experiences which people happen to have had, which produced the knowledge.