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Philosophy vocabulary · Key Thinkers' Concepts

Tabula rasa

Meaning in philosophy, with examples

/ˌtæbjʊlə ˈrɑːsə/nounAdvanced term

In philosophy, tabula rasa means: The idea that the mind at birth is like a blank slate with no built-in ideas, so that all its contents come from experience.

In Turkish: tabula rasa, boş levha

How it is used

Latin for 'scraped tablet'. Strongly associated with Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1689), although Locke himself mostly used the image of white paper. Still used in debates about nature and nurture.

Example sentences

  1. Locke's attack on innate ideas is usually summed up with the phrase tabula rasa.

  2. Modern psychology suggests that the mind is far from a tabula rasa at birth.

Common collocations

  • a blank slate
  • innate ideas
  • nature and nurture
  • Locke's tabula rasa
  • empiricismThe view that all or most of our knowledge comes from experience through the senses, rather than from reason alone.
  • rationalismThe view that reason, rather than sense experience, is the main source of knowledge, and that some knowledge is innate or a priori.
  • a posterioriDescribes knowledge or justification that depends on experience or observation, such as knowing that water boils at 100°C at sea level.
  • knowledgeKnowing that something is the case; traditionally defined as a belief that is true and properly justified, although this definition is disputed.

More terms: Key Thinkers' Concepts

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