Tabula rasa

:For the other meanings of this term, see Tabula rasa (disambiguation).

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Tabula rasa (Latin: "scraped tablet", though often translated "blank slate") is the notion that individual human beings are born "blank" (with no built-in mental content), and that their identity is defined entirely by events after birth.

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However, two uses of the term in modern usage are fundamentally incongruent.

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In John Locke's philosophy, tabula rasa was the theory that the (human) mind is at birth a "blank slate" without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing it formed solely by our sensory experiences. The notion is central to Lockean empiricism. As understood by Locke, tabula rasa meant that the mind of the individual was born "blank", and it also emphasized the individual's freedom to author his or her own soul. Each individual was free to define the content of his or her character - but his or her basic identity as a member of the human species cannot be so altered. It is this presumption of a free, self-authored mind combined with an immutable human nature, from which the Lockean doctrine of "natural" rights derives.

Related Topics:
John Locke - Sensory - Empiricism - Soul - Mind

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Tabula rasa is also featured in Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis.

Related Topics:
Sigmund Freud's - Psychoanalysis

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In recent times, however, tabula rasa has come to be understood fundamentally differently. While the idea that the individual can be changed remains, the power to effect that change is now ascribed to society, not the self - and that power extends to the whole of human nature. Under this view, one can almost without restriction shape the individual by changing the individual's environment, and thus sensory experiences.

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