The more completely the materialistic position is admitted,
the easier is it to show that the idealistic position is unassailable,
if the idealist confines himself within the limits of positive
knowledge.
Hume deals with the questions whether all our ideas are derived from
experience, or whether, on the contrary, more or fewer of them are
innate, which so much exercised the mind of Locke, after a somewhat
summary fashion, in a note to the second section of the _Inquiry_:--
"It is probable that no more was meant by those who denied innate
ideas, than that all ideas were copies of our impressions; though
it must be confessed that the terms which they employed were not
chosen with such caution, nor so exactly defined, as to prevent all
mistakes about their doctrine. For what is meant by _innate_? If
innate be equivalent to natural, then all the perceptions and ideas
of the mind must be allowed to be innate or natural, in whatever
sense we take the latter word, whether in opposition to what is
uncommon, artificial, or miraculous. If by innate be meant
contemporary with our birth, the dispute seems to be frivolous; nor
is it worth while to inquire at what time thinking begins, whether
before, at, or after our birth. Again, the word _idea_ seems to be
commonly taken in a very loose sense by Locke and others, as
standing for any of our perceptions, our sensations and passions,
as well as thoughts.
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