An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1: MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2Locke, John
Philosophy
An Essay Concerning Humane Understanding, Volume 1: MDCXC, Based on the 2nd Edition, Books 1 and 2
Locke, John
Knowledge, Theory of -- Early works to 1800
To which let me add: if there be any innate ideas, any ideas in the
mind which the mind does not actually think on, they must be lodged in
the memory; and from thence must be brought into view by remembrance;
i. e. must be known, when they are remembered, to have been perceptions
in the mind before; unless remembrance can be without remembrance. For,
to remember is to perceive anything with memory, or with a
consciousness that it was perceived or known before. Without this,
whatever idea comes into the mind is new, and not remembered; this
consciousness of its having been in the mind before, being that which
distinguishes remembering from all other ways of thinking. Whatever
idea was never PERCEIVED by the mind was never in the mind. Whatever
idea is in the mind, is, either an actual perception, or else, having
been an actual perception, is so in the mind that, by the memory, it
can be made an actual perception again. Whenever there is the actual
perception of any idea without memory, the idea appears perfectly new
and unknown before to the understanding. Whenever the memory brings any
idea into actual view, it is with a consciousness that it had been
there before, and was not wholly a stranger to the mind. Whether this
be not so, I appeal to every one’s observation. And then I desire an
instance of an idea, pretended to be innate, which (before any
impression of it by ways hereafter to be mentioned) any one could
revive and remember, as an idea he had formerly known; without which
consciousness of a former perception there is no remembrance; and
whatever idea comes into the mind without THAT consciousness is not
remembered, or comes not out of the memory, nor can be said to be in
the mind before that appearance. For what is not either actually in
view or in the memory, is in the mind no way at all, and is all one as
if it had never been there. Suppose a child had the use of his eyes
till he knows and distinguishes colours; but then cataracts shut the
windows, and he is forty or fifty years perfectly in the dark; and in
that time perfectly loses all memory of the ideas of colours he once
had. This was the case of a blind man I once talked with, who lost his
sight by the small-pox when he was a child, and had no more notion of
colours than one born blind. I ask whether any one can say this man had
then any ideas of colours in his mind, any more than one born blind?
And I think nobody will say that either of them had in his mind any
ideas of colours at all. His cataracts are couched, and then he has the
ideas (which he remembers not) of colours, DE NOVO, by his restored
sight, conveyed to his mind, and that without any consciousness of a
former acquaintance. And these now he can revive and call to mind in
the dark. In this case all these ideas of colours which, when out of
view, can be revived with a consciousness of a former acquaintance,
being thus in the memory, are said to be in the mind. The use I make of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account