OUGD603 - The Batsford Prize - Tabula Rasa ("Blank Slate")

Tabula rasa:

Tabula rasa is the epistemological theory that individuals are born without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes from experience or perception. Proponents of tabula rasa disagree with the doctrine of innatism, which holds that the mind is born already in possession of certain knowledge. Generally, proponents of the tabula rasa theory also favour the "nurture" side of the nature versus nurture debate when it comes to aspects of one's personality, social and emotional behaviour, knowledge and sapience.

Tabula rasa is a Latin phrase which translates to "blank slate", which originates from the Roman tabula used for notes, which was blanked by heating wax and then smoothing it. The term refers to the emptiness of a slate prior to it being written on with chalk. Both may be renewed repeatedly by melting the wax of the tablet or erasing the chalk on the slate.

"When a man is born, the Stoics say, he has the commanding part of his soul like a sheet of paper ready for writing on".
"Perception, again, is an impression produced on the mind, its name being appropriately borrowed from impressions on wax made by a seal".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabula_rasa

Tabula rasa Philosophy:

Tabula rasa in epistemology (theory of knowledge) and psychology, a supposed condition that empiricists attribute to the human mind before ideas have been imprinted on it by reaction of the senses to the external world of objects. A new and revolutionary emphasis on the tabula rasa occurred late 17th Century, when the empiricist, John Locke, in 'An Essay Concerning Human Understanding' (1689), argued for the mind's initial resemblance to "white paper, void of all characters", with "all the materials of reason and knowledge" derived from experience. However, Locke himself acknowledged an innate power of "reflection" (awareness of one's own ideas, sensations, emotions, and so on) as a means of exploiting the materials given by experience as well as a limited realm of a priori (non-experiential) knowledge, which he nevertheless regarded as "trifling" and essentially empty of content.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/tabula-rasa

The Educationalists:

The "Educationalists" believed that children were born as "blank slates", beginning their lives morally neutral. From this point of view, infants were neither inherently good or inherently evil. A child's nature and personality would develop over childhood, a period of time during which the Educationalists believed a child was particularly impressionable. Adults surrounding a child could potentially have a very lasting effect on his personality. Since the child's mind was so malleable, a parent could mould him with careful diligence ("blank slate").

http://umich.edu/~ece/student_projects/childrens_lit/Educationalist_Theory.html

Malleable:

Adjective.
1. (Of a metal or other material) able to be hammered or pressed into shape without breaking or cracking - "a malleable metal can be beaten into a sheet".
2. Easily influenced; pliable.