Tabula rasa Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Tabula rasa (Latin: blank slate) is the notion that individual human beings are born "blank" (with no built-in mental content), and that their identity is defined entirely by events after birth.
However, two uses of the term in modern usage are fundamentally incongruent.
In John Locke's philosophy, tabula rasa was the theory that the (human) mind is at birth a "blank slate" without rules for processing data, and that data is added and rules for processing it formed solely by our sensory experiences. The notion is central to Lockean empiricism. It is also featured in Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis. As understood by Locke, tabula rasa meant that the mind of the individual was born "blank", and it also emphasized the individual's freedom to author his or her own soul. Each individual was free to define the content of his or her character -- but his or her basic identity as a member of the human species cannot be so altered. It is this presumption of a free, self-authored mind combined with an immutable human nature, from which the Lockean doctrine of "natural" rights derives.
In recent times, however, tabula rasa has come to be understood fundamentally differently. While the idea that the individual can be changed remains, the power to effect that change is now ascribed to society, not the self -- and that power extends to the whole of human nature. Under this view, one can almost without restriction shape the individual by changing the individual's environment, and thus sensory experiences. In this form, the theory is taken up by many utopian schemes that rely on changing human nature to achieve their goals. As the Lockean idea of natural rights no longer holds any meaning under such a view (because "natural" now means whatever society chooses to define), many such schemes end up moving towards one form or another of totalitarianism.
In music, Tabula Rasa is the title of many compositions, including one by Arvo Pärt, and an album by Einstürzende Neubauten.
For the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer with the same name, see Tabula Rasa (Buffy episode)
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