Monday, March 10, 2008

locke god dotto

Locke's rejection of innate ideas brings up the question of whether he is afraid of accepting the ideas of "innateness" because he does not want people to think that we can just rely on ourselves to know what it right and wrong. Could it be possible that Locke wants us to leave the acceptance of moral principles and facts to God? Does he want us to think of God as responsible for our knowledge? Many people do not believe in God. For those who do, they consider God to be a fact. To many other people, God is the complete opposite, so wouldn't this idea of God be contradictory to his idea of God being the only thing that is innate? We are not born knowing that God exists. A baby would not say "God" as his first word unless his parents told him to, and even if he did, he does not know what it means. Could the desire of a child to stay with his or her mother at all times be an innate knowledge?

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