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The Early Modern Debate on Innate Ideas: A Brief Tour of Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume

February 26, 2010
3:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Center for Cognitive Science 1961 Tuttle Park Place Room 210 (Conference Room)

Spring 2010 Debate Speaker Series Presents:

Sukjae Lee, Department of Philosphy

Abstract:

When the philosophers of the 17th and 18th Century were arguing about "innate ideas", what were they disagreeing about? In this talk, I will try to present an account of the nature of the actual debate by focusing on the views and arguments presented by Descartes, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume in favor and against what they took to be our innate ideas. Particular attention will be given to the view that a strong reason to favor innate ideas is that the representational content of certain ideas cannot be properly account for by what these philosophers took to be the deliverances of basic sensory experience.

Seminar Series 2010