Single Idea 20803

[catalogued under 12. Knowledge Sources / A. A Priori Knowledge / 3. Innate Knowledge / c. Tabula rasa]

Full Idea

The Stoics say when a human being is born, the leading part of his soul is like a sheet of paper ready for being written on. On this he inscribes every one of his conceptions. The first manner of writing on it is through the senses.

Gist of Idea

Stoics say we are born like a blank sheet of paper; the first concepts on it are sensations

Source

report of Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]) by Pseudo-Plutarch - On the Doctrine of the Philosophers 900a

Book Reference

'The Stoics Reader', ed/tr. Inwood,B/Gerson,L.P. [Hackett 2008], p.48


A Reaction

This may not be dogmatic empiricism, because later inscriptions on the sheet could be purely a priori.