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"There is the question whether the soul in itself is completely blank like a writing tablet on which nothing has as yet been written--a tabula rasa--as Aristotle and the author of the Essay maintain, and whether everything which is inscribed there comes solely from the senses and experience; or whether the soul inherently contains the sources of various notions and doctrines which external objects merely rouse up on suitable occasions, as I believe and as Plato and even the Schoolmen and all those who understand the sense of the passage in St. Paul where he says that God's law is written in our hearts (Romans 2:15)"

— Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)

Author

Leibniz, Gottfried Wilhelm (1646-1716)

Work Title

Nouveaux Essais sur l'entendement humain [New Essays on Human Understanding]

Place of Publication

Amsterdam and Leipzig

Publisher

Chez Jean Schreuder

Date

1765

Metaphor

"There is the question whether the soul in itself is completely blank like a writing tablet on which nothing has as yet been written--a tabula rasa--as Aristotle and the author of the Essay maintain, and whether everything which is inscribed there comes solely from the senses and experience; or whether the soul inherently contains the sources of various notions and doctrines which external objects merely rouse up on suitable occasions, as I believe and as Plato and even the Schoolmen and all those who understand the sense of the passage in St. Paul where he says that God's law is written in our hearts (Romans 2:15)"

Metaphor in Context

Our disagreements concern points of some importance. There is the question whether the soul in itself is completely blank like a writing tablet on which nothing has as yet been written--a tabula rasa--as Aristotle and the author of the Essay maintain, and whether everything which is inscribed there comes solely from the senses and experience; or whether the soul inherently contains the sources of various notions and doctrines which external objects merely rouse up on suitable occasions, as I believe and as Plato and even the Schoolmen and all those who understand the sense of the passage in St. Paul where he says that God's law is written in our hearts (Romans 2:15). The Stoics call these sources Prolepses, that is fundamental assumptions or things taken for granted in advance. Mathematicians call them common notions or koinai ennoiai. Modern philosophers give them other fine names and Julius Scaliger, in particular, used to call them "seeds of eternity" and also "zopyra"--meaning living fires or flashes of light hidden inside us but made visible by stimulation of the senses, as sparks can be struck by steel. And we have reason to believe that these flashes reveal something divine and eternal: this appears especially in the case of necessary truths. That raises another question, namely whether all truths depend on experience, that is on induction and instances, or if some of them have some other foundation. For if some events can be foreseen before any test has been made of them, it is obvious that we contribute something from our side [...]
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