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John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

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John Locke's An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
John Locke, "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" (1690) John Locke in his essay "Concerning Human Understanding" begins with his explanation of ideas, and spends a decent amount of time here. Locke is concerned with ideas in two ways; simple and complex. From here he extrapolates, and makes his argument against innate ideas and for a tabula rasa, or blank slate, idea of human understanding. His arguments also address several other philosophers' papers and the errors he sees in them, most notably Spinoza and Descartes. However, Locke's argument against innate ideas falters a bit due to inner contradictions; specifically, when he addresses the idea of the blank slate and pre-experiences in the womb.

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