Single Idea 12940

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / A. A Priori Knowledge / 3. Innate Knowledge / c. Tabula rasa]

Full Idea

Those who hold forth about the 'blank page' cannot say what is left of it once the ideas have been taken away.

Gist of Idea

What is left of the 'blank page' if you remove the ideas?

Source

Gottfried Leibniz (New Essays on Human Understanding [1704], 2.01)

Book Reference

Leibniz,Gottfried: 'New Essays on Human Understanding', ed/tr. Remnant/Bennett [CUP 1996], p.110


A Reaction

This is a decisive criticism of the total tabula rasa idea, but empiricists responded by developing associationism - that what remains is principles of association for incoming experience. Brain mechanisms, we might say.