Tabula rasa

For other uses of "Tabula Rasa ", see disambiguation.

Tabula rasa (Latin for " smoothed chalkboard " ) originally refers to a smoothed wax tablet and actually means: blank slate (also: Blank Slate, blank blackboard ).

This was referred to in the figurative sense, the soul (as a place of awareness of the people ) in their original condition, ie before receiving impressions from the outside world. In the literal sense of tabula rasa in ancient times was a wax- coated writing tablet, after the description of the Scripture could be completely removed.

The tabula rasa metaphor in non- empiricist context

Already Aeschylus says that the experiences dig " in the tables of the senses".

Plato compares (only ) memory with a wax tablet, as in Theaetetus dialogue:

" Socrates: So I sit now, so we do have a word in our souls a waxy cast, which record impressions can in which a larger, in another smaller, in which a purer wax, at the other of schmutzigerem, even harder for some and in other moist, with some also just as he must be [ ...] This, we say, was a gift from the mother of the Muses, Mnemosyne; and whose we want to remind us of what is seen or heard or even been thought that we press on in this cast, by the perceptions and thoughts we entertain him, as during the sealing with the character of a ring. What is now pulls the trigger, which we remember and know, as long as that is his image is available. Has but this goes out or has it can not be printed, so we forget the thing and they do not know. "

In the context discusses what knowledge is actually suitable. The theories learned are all rejected at the end of Socrates. In the background is the Platonic anamnesis teaching.

Even Aristotle, a student of Plato and critics in many ways, also with respect to which epistemology can be found in his book On the Soul ( " Περί Ψυχῆς " ) a comparison between the soul and a wax tablet:

" So it ( thinking ) has something in common with his subject, but one part ( of thought) seems to be working, the other receiving. This follows even if they (the thinking soul ) can be thought of yourself. [ ... ] The reason [ falls ] of the system according to their objects together [ ... ], but in reality with no before she thinks. One must imagine that like a board on which nothing is really written. "

Is also found in the Stoics, the comparison of the soul with a wax tablet.

From the Middle Ages this idea is taken up by several philosophers, as of Albertus Magnus, Franciscus Mercurius van Helmont and Thomas Aquinas.

At Thomas Aquinas says: " intellectus humanus ... autem est in potentia respectu intelligibilium, et sicut in principio est nihil est qua tabula rasa in scriptum, ut dicit in philosophus III de anima Quod manifest apparet ex hoc quod in principio. sumus solum intelligent in potentia, postmodum autem efficimur intelligent in actu. " ( The human intellect but is in potency with respect to the intelligible and at the beginning he is like a blank slate ( " tabula rasa " ), as the Philosopher [ Aristotle ] says in the book 3 of De anima. This is it obvious that we were on beginning only the possibility, but later the reality by intelligent are. )

The tabula rasa metaphor in empiricism ( Locke )

The position of empiricism

In modern times, especially John Locke (1632-1704) draws on the image of the soul / the mind as a tabula rasa and integrated it into his empiricist epistemology. In many cases, the term has since been construed only empirically.

Already by Pierre Gassendi, the "father of modern empiricism " and contemporary opponent of Descartes, a tabula rasa, it is argued.

Prominent is the doctrine of the philosopher John Locke:

He used this idea as a metaphor for the human mind at birth ( " a blank slate "). This is marked by the experience during the course of life.

With his views Locke deepened the materialistic empiricism of Francis Bacon. They practiced on the philosophical development of the 18th century and 19th century are an important factor. However, since the predominantly materialistic views of Locke hid very contradictory moments in themselves, various philosophers such as George Berkeley and Denis Diderot were able to continue his sensualism.

Critics and opponents

Locke's materialist sensationalism used this argument against the doctrine of innate ideas ( ideae innatae ), where he concretely to the idealist philosophers of the Cambridge School ( Cambridge Platonism: Henry More, Ralph Cudworth ), but also to Herbert of Cherbury and Descartes and his followers how ever thought of the influenced by Plato and the Stoics philosophers who had represented the presence of innate concepts and principles with emphasis. Above all basic concepts of mathematics and logic have been considered as innate ideas.

Leibniz disagreed with an absolute tabula rasa theory. According to him, applies (only ): Nothing is in the mind, which is not previously been in the senses - except the mind itself, ie innate ideas and knowledge structures. According to Leibniz is like the mind of a newborn baby "is not a blank wax tablet, but a piece of marble, the veins has. " Basic concepts and principles of consistency and the principle of sufficient reason occur after Leibniz before and dispositions.

Similarly, Immanuel Kant disagreed with the empiricist theory; he held certain ideas (such as the notion of Euclidean space or the concept of God ) for the human innate.

The ( empirical ) tabula rasa theory in the critique of psychology

In modern times, Sigmund Freud used the term in his treatise " Note on the Mystic Writing Pad " (1925 ) was used.

Some modern Wissenschaftsdiziplinen have questioned the idea of ​​the tabula rasa in question. Cognitive scientists have identified several innate mechanisms that are essential for learning (eg, a sense of objects and figures, a theory of mind ). According to evolutionary psychology, there are a number of cultural, social, linguistic, behavioral and psychological characteristics that are found in all human populations. Second, can only be understood as evolutionary adaptations in the context of hunter-gatherers many human characteristics ( eg appetite, revenge, attractiveness). Neuroscience has shown that prenatal brain goes through complex interconnections that are genetically controlled. Also, the tabula rasa does not stand with the knowledge of the genetics of behavior that all human behavioral traits are partly heritable.