innate ideas

innate ideas
Ideas that are inborn and not the product of experience. The controversy over their existence formed a major element in Locke's rejection of the philosophy of Descartes, and Locke was in turn attacked over the issue by Leibniz . The question was whether the mind is equipped with highly general concepts—God, freedom, immortality, substance—that can be known a priori to be applicable to the world, and that could therefore afford us clear and distinct knowledge unlike any that can be certified by experience. It thus formed a pivotal issue between rationalists and their empiricist opponents. The connection between innateness as such and any right to think of these ideas as yielding a distinct kind of knowledge was queried by Hume, but the need for a priori categories of the understanding through which experience is organized was again defended by Kant . In the 20th century the view that children carry with them an innate universal grammar, enabling them to pull off the remarkable feat of learning a first language, has been defended by Chomsky.

Philosophy dictionary. . 2011.

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  • Innate ideas — Innate In nate ([i^]n n[asl]t or [i^]n*n[=a]t ; 277), a. [L. innatus; pref. in in + natus born, p. p. of nasci to be born. See {Native}.] 1. Inborn; native; natural; as, innate vigor; innate eloquence. [1913 Webster] 2. (Metaph.) Originating in,… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Innate — In nate ([i^]n n[asl]t or [i^]n*n[=a]t ; 277), a. [L. innatus; pref. in in + natus born, p. p. of nasci to be born. See {Native}.] 1. Inborn; native; natural; as, innate vigor; innate eloquence. [1913 Webster] 2. (Metaph.) Originating in, or… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • innate — innate, inborn, inbred, congenital, hereditary, inherited are comparable but not wholly synonymous terms that refer to qualities which either are or seem to be derived from one s inheritance or from conditions attending one s birth or origin.… …   New Dictionary of Synonyms

  • innate idea — ▪ philosophy       in philosophy, an idea allegedly inborn in the human mind, as contrasted with those received or compiled from experience. The doctrine that at least certain ideas (e.g., those of God, infinity, substance) must be innate,… …   Universalium

  • innate — 1. adjective /ɪˈneɪt/ a) Inborn; native; natural; as, innate vigor; innate eloquence. b) Originating in, or derived from, the constitution of the intellect, as opposed to acquired from experience; as, innate ideas. See a priori, intuitive. See… …   Wiktionary

  • innate — /ɪnˈeɪt / (say in ayt) adjective 1. inborn; existing or as if existing in one from birth: innate modesty. 2. inherent in the essential character of something. 3. arising from the constitution of the mind, rather than acquired from experience:… …  

  • Innate intelligence — is a chiropractic term to describe the organizing properties of living things. It was originally coined by Daniel David Palmer, the founder of chiropractic. This vitalistic concept states that all life contains Innate (inborn) Intelligence and… …   Wikipedia

  • Leibniz: truth, knowledge and metaphysics — Nicholas Jolley Leibniz is in important respects the exception among the great philosophers of the seventeenth century. The major thinkers of the period characteristically proclaim the need to reject the philosophical tradition; in their… …   History of philosophy

  • Locke: knowledge and its limits — Ian Tipton I That John Locke’s Essay concerning Human Understanding is one of the philosophical classics is something nobody would deny, yet it is not easy to pinpoint precisely what is so special about it. Locke himself has been described as the …   History of philosophy

  • empiricism — empiricist, n., adj. /em pir euh siz euhm/, n. 1. empirical method or practice. 2. Philos. the doctrine that all knowledge is derived from sense experience. Cf. rationalism (def. 2). 3. undue reliance upon experience, as in medicine; quackery. 4 …   Universalium

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