Locke And Locke's Sense

Locke and Hume have similar concepts surrounding knowledge and how it is obtained. They both explain that knowledge is not innate, and that you are not born with knowledge already within you but that you gain it through your sense impressions. Locke states that “ men, barely by the use of their natural faculties, may attain to all the knowledge they have, without the help of any innate impressions.” He follows this statement by explaining that it would be wrong to assume that the idea of colors were innate when God gave a person the ability to experience and discover colors through the eyes. One of Locke’s arguments for his idea that knowledge is not innate is the concept of general assent. If ideas were innate then there would be certain things

Locke says that all ideas come from experience and that that experience can be broken into two categories of perception, sensation and reflection. Sensation is what comes from our senses analyzing external objects. To hold an object and feel if it is hot or cold or if it is soft or spiky, sensations come from the senses interacting with external things. Reflection comes from within. It is the mind reflecting and thinking about its own operation. Locke states that reflection is being conscious of the mind and examining “thinking, doubting, believing, reasoning, knowing, willing and all the different actings of our own minds”. According to Locke every idea is either derived from sensation or reflection. He states “ he has not any idea in his mind but what one of these two have imprinted.” Locke goes on to explain evidence to support this by using children as an example. By simply being alive in the world children are being imprinted with infinite amounts of ideas as they experience things like light and color and tough and smell. If a child never tasted an apple they would not have the idea of what an apple tastes, it would need to come from the sensation or through the senses. Children do not obtain ideas through reflection because it takes more attention and contemplation. Children are too occupied with gaining ideas through external objects and sensation to concentrate on reflection and it only occurs once the child gets older. Besides classifying the process of gaining ideas as sensation and reflection Locke also talks of primary and secondary ideas. Primary ideas come through one sense, while secondary ideas come through multiple senses. This concept is important in Locke’s idea of sense impressions and obtaining