Full Idea
Those who hold forth about the 'blank page' cannot say what is left of it once the ideas have been taken away.
Gist of Idea
What is left of the 'blank page' if you remove the ideas?
Source
Gottfried Leibniz (New Essays on Human Understanding [1704], 2.01)
Book Reference
Leibniz,Gottfried: 'New Essays on Human Understanding', ed/tr. Remnant/Bennett [CUP 1996], p.110
A Reaction
This is a decisive criticism of the total tabula rasa idea, but empiricists responded by developing associationism - that what remains is principles of association for incoming experience. Brain mechanisms, we might say.