Episode Details

Locke promises a “blank slate” mind—but once you follow the logic, his empiricism starts sliding toward skepticism.

• Three “contenders” for what knowledge is: Descartes (JTB + foundationalism); Bacon (knowledge as power); Locke (empiricism)
• Locke’s tabula rasa (blank slate) and why he rejects innate ideas
• How Locke tries to calm intellectual arrogance: learn the limits of the human mind
• Objections to Locke: Berkeley’s skeptical pressure, Hume’s problem of induction, and modern cognitive-science pushback on the blank slate
• How each theory hits a wall (utility vs certainty vs “reliable enough”)
• Pyrrhonian skepticism as a therapy for overconfidence in theory