Question

read the passage from book ii of an essay concerning human understanding by john locke, then answer the questions.
let us then suppose the mind to have no ideas in it, to be like white paper with nothing written on it. how then does it come to be written on? from where does it get that vast store which knowledge? to this i answer, in one word, from experience. our understandings derive all the materials of thinking from observations that we make of external objects that can be perce ourselves. these two are the fountains of knowledge, from which arise all the ideas we have or can naturally have.

1. in an essay concerning human understanding, what does locke argue against?

a. sensory perception
b. rationalism
c. empiricism
d. innate knowledge

1. locke’s metaphor of the mind as ‘white paper’ primarily serves to argue that:

a. education is unnecessary for intellectual development.
b. all ideas and knowledge originate from experience.
c. imagination is more important than observation.
d. human minds are born with pre - existing knowledge.

Explanation:

Question 3

Locke's "white paper" (tabula rasa) concept and emphasis on experience as the source of knowledge oppose the idea that knowledge is innate (present from birth). Option a: He doesn't argue against sensory perception (he uses observations). Option b: Rationalism (knowledge from reason) – Locke supports empiricism, but the question is what he argues against; his target is innate knowledge, not rationalism directly here. Option c: He supports empiricism, so he doesn't argue against it. Option d: Innate knowledge is the idea he rejects, as he says the mind starts empty and gets knowledge from experience.

The "white paper" metaphor means the mind starts empty (no pre - existing knowledge). Option a: The metaphor isn't about education's necessity. Option b: Since the mind is like blank paper, ideas come from experience (writing on the paper), so this matches. Option c: The metaphor doesn't compare imagination and observation. Option d: It directly contradicts the metaphor (blank paper has no pre - existing knowledge).

Answer:

d. Innate knowledge

Question 4