1. Concept Innatism

2. Innatism
Locke (who denied the existence of innate ideas) defines innate ideas as:
‘[S]ome primary notions... 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.’
Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, 1, 2, par. 1

3. Descartes Trademark Argument
Descartes tried to prove the existence of God in his Trademark argument by arguing that we have an innate idea of God that has been ‘stamped’ on our mind by God.
Descartes argues that humans have an idea of a perfect and infinite being (God). However, as humans are finite and imperfect, we cannot have created this idea ourselves. The idea must come from an infinite and perfect being – God – therefore proving God’s existence.

4. Trademark Argument
‘But these attributes [of God’s] are so great and eminent that the more attentively I consider them, the less I am persuaded that the idea I have of them can originate in me alone. And consequently I must necessarily conclude from all I have said hitherto, that God exists; for, although the idea of substance is in me, for the very reason that I am a substance, I would not, nevertheless, have the idea of an infinite substance, since I am a finite being, unless the idea has been put into me by some substance which was truly infinite.’
Descartes, Meditations, page 124.

5. Premise Form
- Premise 1: The cause of anything must be at least as perfect as its effect [The Causal Principle]
- Premise 2: My ideas must be caused by something.
- Premise 3: I am an imperfect being.
- Premise 4: I have the idea of God, which is that of a perfect being.
- Intermediate conclusion 1: I cannot be the cause of my idea of God. (From premises 1,2,3 and 4).
- Intermediate conclusion 2: Only a perfect being (that is, God) can be the cause of my idea of God. (From premise 1 and 4 and IC1).
- Main conclusion: God must exist. (From premise 4 and IC2).

6. Descartes Argument Criticisms

7. Descartes Criticisms
- There are problems with Descartes’ Causal Principle (that ‘there must be at least as much reality in the efficient and total cause as in its effect’ Meditations) because there seem to be examples of effects have more perfection or reality than their causes. Examples: a match causing a bonfire; a whisper causing an avalanche; the natural process of evolution. So the idea of God needn’t come from God.

8. Criticisms
- Humans don’t have the idea of infinity (the most humans can have is the idea of the opposite of finite). So, if humans don’t have an idea of an infinite being then Descartes’ argument fails.
- The idea of God is incoherent (e.g. the paradox of the stone). So the idea of God is unclear and would not be caused by God but could have been caused by Descartes himself.

9. Criticisms
- The idea of an all-powerful God is not universal and therefore this idea may have arisen at one point in history rather than being innate.
- Empiricists can explain how we have the idea of God through abstracting qualities and characteristics we observe in the world. For example, we experience wise, kind and strong people and abstract out these characteristics infinitely to form the idea of an omniscient, omnibenevolent and omnipotent being, God.

10. Other forms of Innatism
Physical Substance
Descartes argues that the concept of a physical object does not derive from sense experience, but is innate.
He argues this through using the example of a block of wax. When cold, the wax sounds, feels, looks and smells a certain way, for example it is hard and makes a sound when struck with a finger. However, when the block of wax is melted, it changes shape and colour, it feels and smells differently and it no longer makes a sound when struck by a finger. Therefore, all the original sensory qualities of the wax have changed.

11. However…
However, Descartes argues that we would still believe that this is the same block of wax.
As our senses cannot tell us that this is the same block of was – because all the sensory qualities of the wax have changed – it is our understanding that tells us that this is the same wax.
Therefore, our idea of physical objects belongs in the understanding and thus is innate.

12. Numbers
Both Plato and Descartes argued that our concepts of numbers are innate.
Plato argues that we cannot have sensory experiences of numbers – for example, we can have sensory experiences of pairs of things but never the number 2 itself – so our concepts of numbers must be innate.
Plato argues that we encounter numbers in the World of Forms – a realm of pure thought – before birth.

13. Empiricists Reply
Empiricists can reply that we form the concepts of numbers from abstracting out from sensory experiences of collections of objects in the world.
However, Descartes argues that we can form the concept of a shape with one thousand sides without being able to form a clear image of this shape. So, we can form concepts (we can understand) numbers and shapes that we have never encountered.
So, the concepts of numbers and shapes are not acquired through sensory experience but exist in the innately in the mind.

14. Beauty and Justice
Plato argues that our concepts of universals such as beauty and justice are innate and we encounter these universals in the world of forms before birth.
He argues that we cannot acquire these concepts through sensory experience because we only ever observe particular examples of beautiful or just things, never Beauty or Justice itself.
Additionally, in order to be able to recognise when particular things are beautiful or particular actions are just, we must first possess the concepts of beauty and justice. If we did not possess these concepts, we wouldn’t be able to recognise or learn about beautiful or just things.

15. Innate Structures
Kant believed that humans possess innate concepts in their minds in order to structure, categorise and make sense of their sensory experiences.
‘Thoughts without content are empty; intuitions [impressions] without concepts are blind.’ (Kant, Critique of Pure Reason).
Therefore, rather than the human mind passively receiving sensory information, the human mind is active in shaping sensory experiences of the world.
Examples of innate concepts for Kant include: causation; time and space, and unity.
Noam Chomsky has also argued that humans innately posses the capacity to learn language – just hearing and experiencing language would not be enough for humans to learn language.