blank slate n.: tabula rasa
The dominant picture of mind since the Renaissance—it is common to classical empiricism, which embraced consciousness, and modern behaviorism, which eschewed it—is the tabula rasa: the blank ledger upon which the environment leaves its trace as the mind is given whatever structure and content it finally possesses. (Colin McGinn, “The Know-It-All,” New Republic, 2/23/1998.)
No Comments
Comments Off
