Innateness is a philosophical ideology that believes that an individual's knowledge is an innate characteristic, that is, who is born with it.
In this theory, the idea of knowledge developed from the individual learning and experiences of each person is discredited.
For the defenders of the theory of innateness, all the basic qualities and capacities of human knowledge would already be present in the person from birth.
These qualities would be transmitted through heredity, in other words, they are characteristics passed on from parents to children through genetic inheritance.
The innate thought discards the possibility of improvement of the human being, since he would not have the capacity to evolve or possibilities of change after his birth.
The individual is seen as a static being, which since its origin already has previously defined personality, beliefs, habits, values and social conduct.
This theory makes room for ideologies that defend social hierarchization, that is, when a certain group of human beings would supposedly be “naturally” more intelligent or fitter than others.
According to innateness, education should only serve to awaken the “essence” that exists within each individual. Teachers are advised not to interfere too much in their students' learning process.
From then on, success or failure depends exclusively on the student, because if he or she cannot absorb or learn a given subject or science, the justification lay in the lack of their genetic ability of aptitude or performance to that story.
Innateness and empiricism
Like innateness, empiricism is a philosophical thought that tries to explain the learning process of human beings.
However, both theories are considered to be completely opposite in their definitions.
O empiricism believes that individuals' ideas are only developed from experiences experienced by each person.
For empiricism, all knowledge is created from an experience, through capturing the senses.
The human mind would be born as a “blank sheet”, where the individual impressions captured by each individual are recorded throughout life.
Learn more about the meaning of Empiricism.
platonic innateness
One of the first philosophers to defend the idea of innate knowledge was Plato.
Platonic innateness stated that “the soul proceeds the body”, that is, every human being already has the knowledge stored in his soul from past incarnations. Whenever the individual incarnates, he would already have his knowledge base ready.
Plato said that these “sleeping knowledge” should be worked on and organized throughout life to become “true knowledge”.
