Preview

What Is John Locke's Theory Of Childhood

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
650 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Is John Locke's Theory Of Childhood
John Locke, a very well-known philosopher who lived in the late 1600’ says “A child is a

blank slate that is formed only through experience.” (Locke). This quote means that children are

just blank and plain and they can’t have a personality or anything to them until they go through

experiences in life. This theory that Locke came up with explains children who are first born,

how everyone starts off the same, and how no one can have thoughts without experience.

Locke had many reasons for his theory about children starting off as a blank slate.

“Individuals acquire knowledge most easily when they first consider simple ideas and then

gradually combine them to form ones that are more complex.” (Locke). This quote is explaining

how
…show more content…
“Infants were neither inherently good nor

inherently evil. A child's nature and personality would develop over childhood.” When we are

born, we don’t have a personality or common knowledge yet because we haven’t been through

any experiences that have caused us to learn anything yet. Through experience, we gain good

traits or bad traits from the experiences and events that occur in our lives, but the moment we are

born, we don’t have any of those traits yet.

“All men are created equal, and each of us can be said to be the author of our own

character.” (Locke) In this quote, Locke is explaining how since every person is born without

experience, every person is born the same. All infants that have just been born don’t know

anything yet and aren’t their own person yet. Therefore, everyone is, in fact, born equal because

they haven’t experienced anything in life yet to sway their personalities or decisions in life.

“Children are born with minds as blank as slates, but they have natural inclinations which

include personalities, likes and dislikes.” (Locke) Children aren’t born completely blank.
…show more content…
This quote from the book is the monster describing that he had no thoughts in his mind or

anything of the sort. According to Locke, the reasoning for the monster to not have anything

going through his mind is because everyone starts off with a mind as a blank slate. The monster

started off as a blank slate and he practically says that by saying that all was confused.

Throughout the book, though, the monster starts to comprehend ideas and learn and grow

because he is becoming his own person through experience. He started off as a blank slate and

was formed through his experiences with people and objects around him, just like Locke’s theory

states.

Locke’s theory “A child is a blank slate that is formed only through experience.” Makes

complete sense and I agree with it completely. Everyone starts off as a blank slate and doesn’t

become their own person until they live and learn. Children who are first born, how everyone

starts off the same, and how no one can have thoughts without experience are just few of many

reasons how a child starts off as a blank slate and is only formed through

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Powerful Essays

    Chapters 6 And 7 Module 2

    • 1747 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Locke believed that all of our ideas come from experience. He notes that our minds begin as a blank…

    • 1747 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Twin and Response Feedback

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages

    2. Locke's view that children are a blank slate on which experience writes, is an illustration of which theme in child development? active-passive child…

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Locke also believed that every person has natural rights. A natural right is a basic right that every…

    • 341 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    When a child is born it goes through various stages of this development by understanding their environment from birth they can also process all the information around them using their developing thinking skills this then grows with age.…

    • 1522 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Ransom: Hero and Achilles

    • 4245 Words
    • 17 Pages

    Human condition: “To be seen as a man like other men, humans as we are …would have suggested that I was impermanent and weak”…

    • 4245 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    There have been many arguments over whether a child is a blank state formed by experiences, or if their upbringing is responsible for their education. It can be seen through several examples that children are a direct result of the experiences they have. When people have positive experiences they tend to have a more optimistic outlook on life and lead good lives. The opposite is true for people that have bad childhoods. The book Frankenstein is a perfect example of this because the monster starts out with a blank mind, and is molded by his experiences. There are also several real life examples of adults’ lives being a reflection on the childhood they had.…

    • 1017 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Locke argues that there is no truth that everyone, including idiots and children, assents to – so no truth is innate.…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    It became apparent that the creature inherited these traits from Frankenstein following the creature’s artificial birth. Just like Frankenstein, the creature had a yearning to become intelligent and absorb knowledge. In the meantime the creature begun to understand the ways of a poor family he came across, the Delacys who lived in the same woods like himself. The creature began a relationship with the family by stealing their food unknowing of his actions eventually proving wrong and initiated harm towards humans, but from then on the creature stops stealing from the Delacy’s and begun to help better their lives instead by providing them with firewood at night. It became evident that the creature gained knowledge from the Delacy’s when he contemplates the family's way of speech sequentially allowing him to understand the English language articulately. In the meantime Frankenstein and his creation meet again long after he made his creation and the creature explains how he first felt when he came to life saying, “A strange multiplicity of sensations seized me, and I saw, felt, heard, and…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Locke was a political figure and well known for his studies in medicine. Locke also was well educated in medicine. He was a key advocate of the observed approaches of the Scientific Revolution. During his final years John Locke wrote and published all of his most significant works. One of them was his “Essay Concerning Human Understanding” in which he advanced a theory of the self as a blank page, with knowledge and identity arising only from accumulated experiences. Locke made a perfect example: “Rejecting the divine right of kings, that societies form governments by mutual (and, in later generations, tacit) agreement. Thus, when a king loses the consent of the governed, a society may remove him—an approach quoted almost verbatim in Thomas Jefferson’s 1776 Declaration of Independence.” In the end Locke came up with a final answer from all of his studies that explained his work. Locke said “A child is a blank slate that is formed through experience.”2…

    • 931 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Locke believed that the mind is blank upon birth. As a person grows and develops, so does their mind. He urged individuals to formulate theories and to test them through experiments. The fundamental claim is that human knowledge begins with sense experience and primarily is derived from it. Locke begins his philosophical examination of knowledge by trying to disprove the claim that some of our knowledge is original, in the sense that it comes from ideas which are innate or inborn. Locke's attempted refutation depends on a questionable assumption: if an individual has an idea, then that individual would understand it and assent to its content.…

    • 1190 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    surroundings that lead us to who we become, childhood experiences included. That means all the…

    • 355 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Human Rights Dbq

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages

    John Locke was an early philosopher that had believed that all men had a right to be free. Locke stated “There [is] nothing more evident, the same…

    • 472 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Rogers, G. A. (2014, August 24). John Locke. Retrieved December 13, 2014, from Encyclopedia Britannica: www.britannica.com/ebchecked/topic/345753/john-locke…

    • 288 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Locke means that freedom we do have have but how do we use it. He also says “there is nothing more evident, than the creators of the same species and rank.”All and all, john locke's main idea was men had freedom and it was up to then how they were gonna use their freedom.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    He believed that we are born with an innate power of “reflection” (awareness of one’s ideas, sensations, emotions), as a means of utilizing the materials given by experience.…

    • 1142 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays