What are the problems with Lockes “Tabula Rasa” idea?
While it is true that most things seem to come to us through experience, there are some things that seem innate. Plato, in Locke’s estimation, and all those who followed his line of thinking went too far in thinking that all things were innate and just waiting to be discovered. However, we have instincts that seem to be inborn, and various means of understanding and interpretation that are natural — they can be developed and shaped (and even changed to a certain extent) but there seem to be things that are part of us cognitively that don’t come from our sensory perceptions. That would be the problem — while all the marks on the blank slate may come from outside, what about the slate itself? We can think perhaps of the situation of the difference between a green or black chalk board and a white dry-erase board — very different things, those, and those differences are innate to the boards themselves.
