Discuss whether it is possible to prove we are born with innate ideas
An innate idea is an idea, of which, we are born with. I believe it is possible that we are born with innate ideas, although few. However, I do not believe it to be possible to prove this. G.E. Moore, Chomsky, Plato and Leibniz all tried to prove humans to have innate ideas. Alas, they could not do so without flaws in their arguments.
G.E. Moore had the idea that morality was an innate idea. This is because he believed ‘good’ could be neither taught nor defined, as everyone has different opinions on good. As some people may say it good to kill a serial killer, but many people would argue that this is not. This means our ideas of what is ‘good’ or not must be innate, as they cannot be taught to us, thus our morality is innate. This is unlike a statement such as 2+2=4, as this is a state which can be taught to us and is definitely correct. It cannot be argued against as it is a necessary truth.
‘Good’, conversely, could be something that is picked up through life. That as we grow up and we are told off for doing wrong and praised for doing right, we could learn our morality. This fits in with ‘good’ still being undefinable’, as every child will have a different upbringing with different experiences and learn a different meaning of ‘good’. They will not definitely be born with the sense the idea of morality but learn it from their sense, as Hume would argue. They also learn this from inward expressions- emotions- and these are not innate ideas, but something we learn. This, I believe shows that G.E. Moore cannot prove that we are born with innate ideas, as it is very possible that the idea he argues we are born with, could be learnt. Just like the statement 2+2=4.
Chomsky, an American linguist, also argued that we are born with innate ideas. According to him, we are born with principles…
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