How Did Locke's Views Differ From Those Of Descartes?

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How did Locke’s views differ from those of Descartes? Whom do you find more convincing? Rene Descartes and John Locke are known as the father of modern philosophy; they are the ones who came up with some interesting ideas that rose some doubts over the years. However, both disagreed on numerous topics in philosophy. Descartes believed that we are born with knowledge implanted in our minds. Whereas Locke believed that we are born as an empty cup ready to be fill with knowledge through experiences. Descartes, a rationalist, argues that some ideas were implanted since birth because our mind could not possibly functions without an implanted knowledge. He quoted; “Some ideas must be innate, since they have not originated from…show more content…
He quoted; “No proposition [or idea] can be said to be in the mind which it never yet knew, which it was never yet conscious of.” In this manner, the mind can acquire all ideas and knowledge that it typically needs from sensory inputs and its reflection upon them making innate ideas unnecessary. For example, if children had this knowledge, why do they not show it at birth? As why does a baby need to learn to walk or talk, why does he or she not have this knowledge at birth? Lock believed that experiences and growth of one’s mind formed these simplistic ideas which could later on be combined into complex ones. For Locke, children couldn’t possibly understand the world around without having their first experiences through vision, touching, taste and many more. By any means, he strongly argues that knowledge is not naturally imprinted rather than acquires by thinking, coordination and experiences. As Descartes suggests that those ideas whose origins cannot be explained in terms of sensory inputs or of the mind’s creation are innate, Locke’s demonstration that the mind is capable of assembling such ideas, without the need to assume the innateness of ideas, seems to refute Descartes’ argument
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