Innatism Theory

In the past, people have used the concept of Innatism to explain the existence of God. As society became more focused on science, objectivity and reason ideas concerning the existence of God were pushed aside. One idea that got caught up with this discipline disposal was the concept of Innatism or Nativism. This concept is centuries old and for a majority of its history has helped to prove the existence of God. This theory dealt with the idea that people are born with some form of innate knowledge and that humans do not learn everything from scratch. Innate knowledge is the theory that people are born with some form of knowledge before they ever learn anything. For a long time great thinkers like Plato and Descartes were masters of this idea.

This idea, fathered by Plato, also seems to have some roots in some sparse writing by a Greek poet named Empedocles. Empedocles lived between 495-430 B.C. and appears to have created some theories that poses Nativist undertones. Empedocles talks about reality being a continuous cycle of love and strife and the mind grasps reality as it has a built in ability to (Samet, Jerry). These writings are rather sparse but they do serve as an important piece of background which lead directly to the more relevant Nativist Plato. Plato is usually referred to as the father of Innatism and it is from him that many early theories about Nativism find roots. Typically Innatism and Plato are connected through math and geometry. These two ideas are universal and undying and so therefore they cannot be forgotten when a person dies. Since math is so important to our understanding of the universe and because it can never change or be destroyed we as beings can never be destroyed. However, other pieces of Plato’s work like Meno show similar yet different arguments for Innatism. In the writings of Meno Plato proposes the doctrine of anamnesis (Samet, Jerry). This idea basically says that all learning is in fact recollection. This idea states that perceptions and the experiences of the world rekindle the knowledge that is already within us (Samet, Jerry). The reason Innatism works in the first place is because Plato in Phaedo has the speaker Socrates put forth the idea that there is a form of existence before birth. The mind or soul is active at this time and it is during this time that we learn everything. Using the idea of the immortality of the soul a jump can be made to the idea of reincarnation. With this idea in mind, it is easier to see how our souls can never be destroyed and maybe therefore neither