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Single Idea 12518

[filed under theme 12. Knowledge Sources / A. A Priori Knowledge / 10. A Priori as Subjective ]

Full Idea

The mind has no power to produce any simple idea.

Gist of Idea

The mind cannot produce simple ideas

Source

John Locke (Essay Conc Human Understanding (2nd Ed) [1694], 2.31.02)

Book Ref

Locke,John: 'Essay Concerning Human Understanding', ed/tr. Nidditch,P.H. [OUP 1979], p.375

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A Reaction

These must all come from experience, implying to common empirical view (spelled out better by Hume) that that a priori concerns only combinations of ideas which we already possess. The 'conceptual' notion of a priori is consistent with this.

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The 7 ideas with the same theme [a priori knowledge is the product of individual minds-]:

12518

The mind cannot produce simple ideas [Locke]

5567	A priori the understanding can only anticipate possible experiences [Kant]

16914

A priori intuition of objects is only possible by containing the form of my sensibility [Kant]

16909

Logic is a priori because we cannot think illogically [Wittgenstein]

12416

We have some self-knowledge a priori, such as knowledge of our own existence [Kitcher]

9339	A priori knowledge (e.g. classical logic) may derive from the innate structure of our minds [Horwich]

3913	Maybe imagination is the source of a priori justification [Casullo]