other side, question everything, and disclaim all knowledge, because
some things are not to be understood. It is of great use to the sailor
to know the length of his line, though he cannot with it fathom al the
depths of the ocean. It is well he knows that it is long enough to reach
the bottom, at such places as are necessary to direct his voyage, and
caution him against running upon shoals that may ruin him. Our business
here is not to know al things, but those which concern our conduct. If
we can find out those measures, whereby a rational creature, put in
that state in which man is in this world, may and ought to govern his
opinions, and actions depending thereon, we need not to be troubled that
some other things escape our knowledge.
7. Occasion of this Essay.
This was that which gave the first rise to this Essay concerning the
understanding. For I thought that the first step towards satisfying
several inquiries the mind of man was very apt to run into, was, to take
a survey of our own understandings, examine our own powers, and see to
what things they were adapted. Til that was done I suspected we began
at the wrong end, and in vain sought for satisfaction in a quiet and
sure possession of truths that most concerned us, whilst we let loose
our thoughts into the vast ocean of Being; as if all that boundless
extent were the natural and undoubted possession of our understandings,
wherein there was nothing exempt from its decisions, or that escaped
its comprehension. Thus men, extending their inquiries beyond their
capacities, and letting their thoughts wander into those depths where
they can find no sure footing, it is no wonder that they raise questions
and multiply disputes, which, never coming to any clear resolution, are
proper only to continue and increase their doubts, and to confirm them
at last in perfect scepticism. Whereas, were the capacities of our
understandings well considered, the extent of our knowledge once
discovered, and the horizon found which sets the bounds between the
enlightened and dark parts of things; between what is and what is not
comprehensible by us, men would perhaps with less scruple acquiesce in
the avowed ignorance of the one, and employ their thoughts and discourse
with more advantage and satisfaction in the other.
8. What Idea stands for.
Thus much I thought necessary to say concerning the occasion of this
inquiry into human Understanding. But, before I proceed on to what I
have thought on this subject, I must here in the entrance beg pardon of
my reader for the frequent use of the word IDEA, which he wil find in
the following treatise. It being that term which, I think, serves best
to stand for whatsoever is the OBJECT of the understanding when a man
thinks, I have used it to express whatever is meant by PHANTASM, NOTION,
SPECIES, or WHATEVER IT IS WHICH THE MIND CAN BE EMPLOYED ABOUT IN
THINKING; and I could not avoid frequently using it. I presume it wil
be easily granted me, that there are such IDEAS in men's minds: every
one is conscious of them in himself; and men's words and actions wil
satisfy him that they are in others.
Our first inquiry then shall be,--how they come into the mind. BOOK I
NEITHER PRINCIPLES NOR IDEAS ARE INNATE
CHAPTER I.
NO INNATE SPECULATIVE PRINCIPLES.
1. The way shown how we come by any Knowledge, sufficient to prove it
not innate.
It is an established opinion amongst some men, that there are in the
understanding certain INNATE PRINCIPLES; some primary notions, KOIVAI
EVVOIAI, characters, as it were stamped upon the mind of man; which the
soul receives in its very first being, and brings into the world with
it. It would be sufficient to convince unprejudiced readers of the
falseness of this supposition, if I should only show (as I hope I shall
in the following parts of this Discourse) how men, barely by the use
of their natural faculties may attain to all the knowledge they have,
without the help of any innate impressions; and may arrive at certainty,
without any such original notions or principles. For I imagine any one
will easily grant that it would be impertinent to suppose the ideas of
colours innate in a creature to whom God hath given sight, and a
power to receive them by the eyes from external objects: and no less
unreasonable would it be to attribute several truths to the impressions
of nature, and innate characters, when we may observe in ourselves
faculties fit to attain as easy and certain knowledge of them as if they
were original y imprinted on the mind.
But because a man is not permitted without censure to follow his own
thoughts in the search of truth, when they lead him ever so little out
of the common road, I shall set down the reasons that made me doubt of
the truth of that opinion, as an excuse for my mistake, if I be in one;
which I leave to be considered by those who, with me, dispose themselves
to embrace truth wherever they find it.
2. General Assent the great Argument.
There is nothing more commonly taken for granted than that there are
certain PRINCIPLES, both SPECULATIVE and PRACTICAL, (for they speak of
both), universally agreed upon by al mankind: which therefore, they
argue, must needs be the constant impressions which the souls of men
receive in their first beings, and which they bring into the world
with them, as necessarily and really as they do any of their inherent
faculties.
3. Universal Consent proves nothing innate.
This argument, drawn from universal consent, has this misfortune in it,
that if it were true in matter of fact, that there were certain truths
wherein all mankind agreed, it would not prove them innate, if there can
be any other way shown how men may come to that universal agreement, in
the things they do consent in, which I presume may be done.
4. "What is is," and "It is possible for the same Thing to be and not to be," not universally assented to.
But, which is worse, this argument of universal consent, which is made
use of to prove innate principles, seems to me a demonstration that
there are none such: because there are none to which al mankind give an
universal assent. I shall begin with the speculative, and instance in
those magnified principles of demonstration, "Whatsoever is, is," and
"It is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be"; which, of all others, I think have the most allowed title to innate. These have so
settled a reputation of maxims universally received, that it will no
doubt be thought strange if any one should seem to question it. But yet
I take liberty to say, that these propositions are so far from having an
universal assent, that there are a great part of mankind to whom they
are not so much as known.
5. Not on Mind naturally imprinted, because not known to Children,
Idiots, &c.
For, first, it is evident, that al children and idiots have not the
least apprehension or thought of them. And the want of that is enough
to destroy that universal assent which must needs be the necessary
concomitant of al innate truths: it seeming to me near a contradiction
to say, that there are truths imprinted on the soul, which it perceives
or understands not: imprinting, if it signify anything, being nothing
else but the making certain truths to be perceived. For to imprint
anything on the mind without the mind's perceiving it, seems to me
hardly intelligible. If therefore children and idiots have souls, have
minds, with those impressions upon them, THEY must unavoidably perceive
them, and necessarily know and assent to these truths; which since they
do not, it is evident that there are no such impressions. For if they
are not notions naturally imprinted, how can they be innate? and if
they are notions imprinted, how can they be unknown? To say a notion is
imprinted on the mind, and yet at the same time to say, that the mind
is ignorant of it, and never yet took notice of it, is to make this
impression nothing. No proposition can be said to be in the mind which
it never yet knew, which it was never yet conscious of. For if any one
may, then, by the same reason, all propositions that are true, and the
mind is capable ever of assenting to, may be said to be in the mind, and
to be imprinted: since, if any one can be said to be in the mind, which
it never yet knew, it must be only because it is capable of knowing it;
and so the mind is of all truths it ever shall know. Nay, thus truths
may be imprinted on the mind which it never did, nor ever shall know;
for a man may live long, and die at last in ignorance of many truths
which his mind was capable of knowing, and that with certainty. So that
if the capacity of knowing be the natural impression contended for, all
the truths a man ever comes to know wil , by this account, be every one
of them innate; and this great point wil amount to no more, but only to
a very improper way of speaking; which, whilst it pretends to assert the
contrary, says nothing different from those who deny innate principles.
For nobody, I think, ever denied that the mind was capable of knowing
several truths. The capacity, they say, is innate; the knowledge
acquired. But then to what end such contest for certain innate maxims?
If truths can be imprinted on the understanding without being perceived,
I can see no difference there can be between any truths the mind is
CAPABLE of knowing in respect of their original: they must all be innate
or all adventitious: in vain shall a man go about to distinguish them.
He therefore that talks of innate notions in the understanding, cannot
(if he intend thereby any distinct sort of truths) mean such truths
to be in the understanding as it never perceived, and is yet whol y
ignorant of. For if these words "to be in the understanding" have
any propriety, they signify to be understood. So that to be in the
understanding, and not to be understood; to be in the mind and never to
be perceived, is all one as to say anything is and is not in the mind or
understanding. If therefore these two propositions, "Whatsoever is, is,"
and "It is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be," are by nature imprinted, children cannot be ignorant of them: infants, and al
that have souls, must necessarily have them in their understandings,
know the truth of them, and assent to it.
6. That men know them when they come to the Use of Reason answered.
To avoid this, it is usually answered, that al men know and assent to
them, WHEN THEY COME TO THE USE OF REASON; and this is enough to prove
them innate. I answer:
7. Doubtful expressions, that have scarce any signification, go for
clear reasons to those who, being prepossessed, take not the pains to
examine even what they themselves say. For, to apply this answer with
any tolerable sense to our present purpose, it must signify one of these
two things: either that as soon as men come to the use of reason these
supposed native inscriptions come to be known and observed by them; or
else, that the use and exercise of men's reason, assists them in the
discovery of these principles, and certainly makes them known to them.
8. If Reason discovered them, that would not prove them innate.
If they mean, that by the use of reason men may discover these
principles, and that this is sufficient to prove them innate; their
way of arguing wil stand thus, viz. that whatever truths reason can
certainly discover to us, and make us firmly assent to, those are all
naturally imprinted on the mind; since that universal assent, which is
made the mark of them, amounts to no more but this,--that by the use of
reason we are capable to come to a certain knowledge of and assent to
them; and, by this means, there wil be no difference between the maxims
of the mathematicians, and theorems they deduce from them: all must be
equally al owed innate; they being all discoveries made by the use of
reason, and truths that a rational creature may certainly come to know,
if he apply his thoughts rightly that way.
9. It is false that Reason discovers them.
But how can these men think the use of reason necessary to discover
principles that are supposed innate, when reason (if we may believe
them) is nothing else but the faculty of deducing unknown truths from
principles or propositions that are already known? That certainly can
never be thought innate which we have need of reason to discover;
unless, as I have said, we will have all the certain truths that reason
ever teaches us, to be innate. We may as wel think the use of reason
necessary to make our eyes discover visible objects, as that there
should be need of reason, or the exercise thereof, to make the
understanding see what is originally engraven on it, and cannot be in
the understanding before it be perceived by it. So that to make reason
discover those truths thus imprinted, is to say, that the use of reason
discovers to a man what he knew before: and if men have those innate
impressed truths originally, and before the use of reason, and yet are
always ignorant of them till they come to the use of reason, it is in
effect to say, that men know and know them not at the same time.
10. No use made of reasoning in the discovery of these two maxims.
It wil here perhaps be said that mathematical demonstrations, and other
truths that are not innate, are not assented to as soon as proposed,
wherein they are distinguished from these maxims and other innate
truths. I shall have occasion to speak of assent upon the first
proposing, more particularly by and by. I shall here only, and that very
readily, allow, that these maxims and mathematical demonstrations are in
this different: that the one have need of reason, using of proofs,
to make them out and to gain our assent; but the other, as soon as
understood, are, without any the least reasoning, embraced and assented
to. But I withal beg leave to observe, that it lays open the weakness of
this subterfuge, which requires the use of reason for the discovery of
these general truths: since it must be confessed that in their discovery
there is no use made of reasoning at all. And I think those who give
this answer will not be forward to affirm that the knowledge of this
maxim, "That it is impossible for the same thing to be and not to be,"
is a deduction of our reason. For this would be to destroy that bounty
of nature they seem so fond of, whilst they make the knowledge of those
principles to depend on the labour of our thoughts. For al reasoning is
search, and casting about, and requires pains and application. And how
can it with any tolerable sense be supposed, that what was imprinted by
nature, as the foundation and guide of our reason, should need the use
of reason to discover it?
11. And if there were this would prove them not innate.
Those who will take the pains to reflect with a little attention on the
operations of the understanding, wil find that this ready assent of the
mind to some truths, depends not, either on native inscription, or the
use of reason, but on a faculty of the mind quite distinct from both of
them, as we shall see hereafter. Reason, therefore, having nothing to do
in procuring our assent to these maxims, if by saying, that "men know
and assent to them, when they come to the use of reason," be meant, that the use of reason assists us in the knowledge of these maxims, it is
utterly false; and were it true, would prove them not to be innate.
12. The coming of the Use of Reason not the Time we come to know these
Maxims.
If by knowing and assenting to them "when we come to the use of reason,"
be meant, that this is the time when they come to be taken notice of by
the mind; and that as soon as children come to the use of reason, they
come also to know and assent to these maxims; this also is false and
frivolous. First, it is false; because it is evident these maxims are
not in the mind so early as the use of reason; and therefore the coming
to the use of reason is falsely assigned as the time of their discovery.
How many instances of the use of reason may we observe in children, a
long time before they have any knowledge of this maxim, "That it is
impossible for the same thing to be and not to be?" And a great part of il iterate people and savages pass many years, even of their rational
age, without ever thinking on this and the like general propositions. I
grant, men come not to the knowledge of these general and more abstract
truths, which are thought innate, til they come to the use of reason;
and I add, nor then neither. Which is so, because, til after they come
to the use of reason, those general abstract ideas are not framed in
the mind, about which those general maxims are, which are mistaken
for innate principles, but are indeed discoveries made and verities
introduced and brought into the mind by the same way, and discovered by
the same steps, as several other propositions, which nobody was ever
so extravagant as to suppose innate. This I hope to make plain in the
sequel of this Discourse. I al ow therefore, a necessity that men should
come to the use of reason before they get the knowledge of those general
truths; but deny that men's coming to the use of reason is the time of
their discovery.
13. By this they are not distinguished from other knowable Truths.
In the mean time it is observable, that this saying that men know and
assent to these maxims "when they come to the use of reason," amounts in reality of fact to no more but this,--that they are never known nor
taken notice of before the use of reason, but may possibly be assented
to some time after, during a man's life; but when is uncertain. And so
may al other knowable truths, as well as these which therefore have no
advantage nor distinction from other by this note of being known when
we come to the use of reason; nor are thereby proved to be innate, but
quite the contrary.
14. If coming to the Use of Reason were the Time of their Discovery, it
would not prove them innate.
But, secondly, were it true that the precise time of their being known
and assented to were, when men come to the use of reason; neither would
that prove them innate. This way of arguing is as frivolous as the
supposition itself is false. For, by what kind of logic will it appear
that any notion is originally by nature imprinted in the mind in its
first constitution, because it comes first to be observed and assented
to when a faculty of the mind, which has quite a distinct province,
begins to exert itself? And therefore the coming to the use of speech,
if it were supposed the time that these maxims are first assented to,
(which it may be with as much truth as the time when men come to the use
of reason,) would be as good a proof that they were innate, as to say
they are innate because men assent to them when they come to the use of
reason. I agree then with these men of innate principles, that there is
no knowledge of these general and self-evident maxims in the mind, till
it comes to the exercise of reason: but I deny that the coming to the
use of reason is the precise time when they are first taken notice of;
and if that were the precise time, I deny that it would prove them
innate. All that can with any truth be meant by this proposition, that
men 'assent to them when they come to the use of reason,' is no more but
this,--that the making of general abstract ideas, and the understanding
of general names, being a concomitant of the rational faculty, and
growing up with it, children commonly get not those general ideas, nor
learn the names that stand for them, til , having for a good while
exercised their reason about familiar and more particular ideas, they
are, by their ordinary discourse and actions with others, acknowledged
to be capable of rational conversation. If assenting to these maxims,
when men come to the use of reason, can be true in any other sense, I
desire it may be shown; or at least, how in this, or any other sense,
it proves them innate.
15. The Steps by which the Mind attains several Truths.
The senses at first let in PARTICULAR ideas, and furnish the yet empty
cabinet, and the mind by degrees growing familiar with some of them,
they are lodged in the memory, and names got to them. Afterwards, the
mind proceeding further, abstracts them, and by degrees learns the use
of general names. In this manner the mind comes to be furnished with
ideas and language, the MATERIALS about which to exercise its discursive
faculty. And the use of reason becomes daily more visible, as these
materials that give it employment increase. But though the having of
general ideas and the use of general words and reason usually grow
together, yet I see not how this any way proves them innate. The
knowledge of some truths, I confess, is very early in the mind; but in a
way that shows them not to be innate. For, if we wil observe, we shall
find it still to be about ideas, not innate, but acquired; it being
about those first which are imprinted by external things, with which
infants have earliest to do, which make the most frequent impressions on
their senses. In ideas thus got, the mind discovers that some agree and
others differ, probably as soon as it has any use of memory; as soon as
it is able to retain and perceive distinct ideas. But whether it be then
or no, this is certain, it does so long before it has the use of words;
or comes to that which we commonly call "the use of reason." For a child knows as certainly before it can speak the difference between the
ideas of sweet and bitter (i.e. that sweet is not bitter), as it knows
afterwards (when it comes to speak) that wormwood and sugarplums are not
the same thing.
16. Assent to supposed innate truths depends on having clear and
distinct ideas of what their terms mean, and not on their innateness.
A child knows not that three and four are equal to seven, till he comes
to be able to count seven, and has got the name and idea of equality;
and then, upon explaining those words, he presently assents to, or
rather perceives the truth of that proposition. But neither does he then
readily assent because it is an innate truth, nor was his assent wanting
til then because he wanted the use of reason; but the truth of it
appears to him as soon as he has settled in his mind the clear and
distinct ideas that these names stand for. And then he knows the truth
of that proposition upon the same ground and by the same means, that he
knew before that a rod and a cherry are not the same thing; and upon
the same ground also that he may come to know afterwards "That it is
impossible for the same thing to be and not to be," as shall be more
fully shown hereafter. So that the later it is before any one comes to
have those general ideas about which those maxims are; or to know the
signification of those generic terms that stand for them; or to put
together in his mind the ideas they stand for; the later also wil it be
before he comes to assent to those maxims;--whose terms, with the ideas
they stand for, being no more innate than those of a cat or a weasel he
must stay till time and observation have acquainted him with them; and
then he wil be in a capacity to know the truth of these maxims, upon
the first occasion that shall make him put together those ideas in
his mind, and observe whether they agree or disagree, according as is
expressed in those propositions. And therefore it is that a man knows
that eighteen and nineteen are equal to thirty-seven, by the same
self-evidence that he knows one and two to be equal to three: yet a
child knows this not so soon as the other; not for want of the use of
reason, but because the ideas the words eighteen nineteen, and
thirty-seven stand for, are not so soon got, as those which are
signified by one, two, and three.
17. Assenting as soon as proposed and understood, proves them not
innate.
This evasion therefore of general assent when men come to the use of
reason, failing as it does, and leaving no difference between those
supposed innate and other truths that a