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=                            Tabula rasa                             =
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                            Introduction
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'Tabula rasa' ( "blank slate") is the theory that individuals are born
without built-in mental content and that therefore all knowledge comes
from experience or perception. Epistemological proponents of tabula
rasa disagree with the doctrine of innatism which holds that the mind
is born already in possession of certain knowledge. Generally,
proponents of the 'tabula rasa' theory also favour the "nurture" side
of the nature versus nurture debate when it comes to aspects of one's
personality, social and emotional behaviour, knowledge and sapience.


                              History
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'Tabula rasa' is a Latin phrase often translated as "clean slate" in
English and originates from the Roman 'tabula' used for notes, which
was blanked by heating the wax and then smoothing it. This roughly
equates to the English term "blank slate" (or, more literally, "erased
slate") which refers to the emptiness of a slate prior to it being
written on with chalk. Both may be renewed repeatedly, by melting the
wax of the tablet or by erasing the chalk on the slate.


                             Philosophy
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In Western philosophy, the concept of 'tabula rasa' can be traced back
to the writings of Aristotle who writes in his treatise "� ε�ί Ψ�
���"
('De Anima' or 'On the Soul') of the "unscribed tablet." In one of the
more well-known passages of this treatise he writes that:
Haven't we already disposed of the difficulty about interaction
involving a common element, when we said that mind is in a sense
potentially whatever is thinkable, though actually it is nothing until
it has thought? What it thinks must be in it just as characters may be
said to be on a writing-tablet on which as yet nothing stands written:
this is exactly what happens with mind.
This idea was further developed in Ancient Greek philosophy by the
Stoic school. Stoic epistemology emphasizes that the mind starts
blank, but acquires knowledge as the outside world is impressed upon
it. The doxographer Aetius summarizes this view as "When a man is
born, the Stoics say, he has the commanding part of his soul like a
sheet of paper ready for writing upon." Diogenes Laërtius attributes a
similar belief to the Stoic Zeno of Citium when he writes in Lives and
Opinions of Eminent Philosophers that:
Perception, again, is an impression produced on the mind, its name
being appropriately borrowed from impressions on wax made by a seal;
and perception they divide into, comprehensible and incomprehensible:
Comprehensible, which they call the criterion of facts, and which is
produced by a real object, and is, therefore, at the same time
conformable to that object; Incomprehensible, which has no relation to
any real object, or else, if it has any such relation, does not
correspond to it, being but a vague and indistinct representation.

In the eleventh century, the theory of 'tabula rasa' was developed
more clearly by the Persian philosopher Avicenna  (Ibn Sina in
Arabic). He argued that the "...human intellect at birth resembled a
'tabula rasa', a pure potentiality that is actualized through
education and comes to know," and that knowledge is attained through
"...empirical familiarity with objects in this world from which one
abstracts universal concepts," which develops through a
"...syllogistic method of reasoning; observations lead to
propositional statements, which when compounded lead to further
abstract concepts." He further argued that the intellect itself
"...possesses levels of development from the static/material intellect
('al-�aql al-hayulani'), that potentiality can acquire knowledge to
the active intellect ('al-�aql al-fa�il'), the state of the human
intellect at conjunction with the perfect source of knowledge."

In the twelfth century, the Andalusian-Islamic philosopher and
novelist, Ibn Tufail, known as "Abubacer" or "Ebn Tophail" in the
West, demonstrated the theory of 'tabula rasa' as a thought experiment
through his Arabic philosophical novel, 'Hayy ibn Yaqzan', in which he
depicted the development of the mind of a feral child "from a tabula
rasa to that of an adult, in complete isolation from society" on a
desert island, through experience alone. The Latin translation of his
philosophical novel, entitled 'Philosophus Autodidactus', published by
Edward Pococke the Younger in 1671, had an influence on John Locke's
formulation of 'tabula rasa' in 'An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding'.

In the thirteenth century, St. Thomas Aquinas brought the Aristotelian
and Avicennian notions to the forefront of Christian thought. These
notions sharply contrasted with the previously held Platonic notions
of the human mind as an entity that preexisted somewhere in the
heavens, before being sent down to join a body here on Earth (see
Plato's 'Phaedo' and 'Apology', as well as others). St. Bonaventure
(also thirteenth century) was one of the fiercest intellectual
opponents of Aquinas, offering some of the strongest arguments toward
the Platonic idea of the mind.

The writings of Avicenna, Ibn Tufail, and Aquinas on the 'tabula rasa'
theory stood unprogressed and untested for several centuries. For
example, the late medieval English jurist Sir John Fortescue, in his
work 'In Praise of the Laws of England' (Chapter VI), takes for
granted the notion of 'tabula rasa', stressing it as the basis of the
need for the education of the young in general, and of young princes
specifically. "Therefore, Prince, whilst you are young and your mind
is as it were a clean slate, impress on it these things, lest in
future it be impressed more pleasurably with images of lesser worth."
('His igitur, Princeps, dum Adolescens es, et Anima tua velut' Tabula
rasa, 'depinge eam, ne in futurum ipsa Figuris minoris Frugi
delectabilius depingatur'.)

The modern idea of the theory, however, is attributed mostly to John
Locke's expression of the idea in 'Essay Concerning Human
Understanding' (he uses the term "white paper" in Book II, Chap. I,
2). In Locke's philosophy, 'tabula rasa' was the theory that at birth
the (human) mind is a "blank slate" without rules for processing data,
and that data is added and rules for processing are formed solely by
one's sensory experiences. The notion is central to Lockean
empiricism; it serves as the starting point for Locke's subsequent
explication (in Book II) of simple ideas and complex ideas. As
understood by Locke, 'tabula rasa' meant that the mind of the
individual was born blank, and it also emphasized the freedom of
individuals to author their own soul. Individuals are free to define
the content of their character�but basic identity as a member of the
human species cannot be altered. This presumption of a free,
self-authored mind combined with an immutable human nature leads to
the Lockean doctrine of "natural" rights. Locke's idea of 'tabula
rasa' is frequently compared with Thomas Hobbes's viewpoint of human
nature, in which humans are endowed with inherent mental
content�particularly with selfishness.

'Tabula rasa' also features in Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis. Freud
depicted personality traits as being formed by family dynamics (see
Oedipus complex). Freud's theories imply that humans lack free will,
but also that genetic influences on human personality are minimal. In
Freudian psychoanalysis, one is largely determined by one's
upbringing.

The 'tabula rasa' concept became popular in social sciences during the
twentieth century. Early ideas of eugenics posited that human
intelligence correlated strongly with social class, but these ideas
were rejected, and the idea that genes (or simply "blood") determined
a person's character became regarded as racist. By the 1970s,
scientists such as John Money had come to see gender identity as
socially constructed, rather than rooted in genetics.


Psychology and neurobiology
=============================
Psychologists and neurobiologists have shown evidence that initially,
the entire cerebral cortex is programmed and organized to process
sensory input, control motor actions, regulate emotion, and respond
reflexively (under predetermined conditions).
These programmed mechanisms in the brain subsequently act to learn
and refine the ability of the organism.

For example, psychologist Steven Pinker showed that�in contrast to
written language�the brain is "programmed" to pick up spoken language
spontaneously.

There have been claims by a minority in psychology and neurobiology,
however, that the brain is 'tabula rasa' only for certain behaviours.
For instance, with respect to one's ability to acquire both general
and special types of knowledge or skills, Michael Howe argued against
the existence of innate talent. There also have been neurological
investigations into specific learning and memory functions, such as
Karl Lashley's study on mass action and serial interaction mechanisms.

Important evidence against the 'tabula rasa' model of the mind comes
from behavioural genetics, especially twin and adoption studies (see
below). These indicate strong genetic influences on personal
characteristics such as IQ, alcoholism, gender identity, and other
traits. Critically, multivariate studies show that the distinct
faculties of the mind, such as memory and reason, fractionate along
genetic boundaries. Cultural universals such as emotion and the
relative resilience of psychological adaptation to accidental
biological changes (for instance the David Reimer case of gender
reassignment following an accident) also support basic biological
mechanisms in the mind.


Social pre-wiring
===================
Twin studies have resulted in important evidence against the 'tabula
rasa' model of the mind, specifically, of social behaviour.

The social pre-wiring hypothesis refers to the ontogeny of social
interaction. Also informally referred to as, "wired to be social." The
theory questions whether there is a propensity to socially oriented
action already present 'before' birth. Research in the theory
concludes that newborns are born into the world with a unique genetic
wiring to be social.

Circumstantial evidence supporting the social pre-wiring hypothesis
can be revealed when examining newborns' behaviour. Newborns, not even
hours after birth, have been found to display a preparedness for
social interaction. This preparedness is expressed in ways such as
their imitation of facial gestures. This observed behaviour cannot be
attributed to any current form of socialization or social
construction. Rather, newborns most likely inherit to some extent
social behaviour and identity through genetics.

Principal evidence of this theory is uncovered by examining twin
pregnancies. The main argument is, if there are social behaviours that
are inherited and developed before birth, then one should expect twin
fetuses to engage in some form of social interaction before they are
born. Thus, ten fetuses were analyzed over a period of time using
ultrasound techniques. Using kinematic analysis, the results of the
experiment were that the twin fetuses would interact with each other
for longer periods and more often as the pregnancies went on.
Researchers were able to conclude that the performance of movements
between the co-twins were not accidental but specifically aimed.

The social pre-wiring hypothesis was proved correct, "The central
advance of this study is the demonstration that 'social actions' are
already performed in the second trimester of gestation. Starting from
the 14th week of gestation twin fetuses plan and execute movements
specifically aimed at the co-twin. These findings force us to predate
the emergence of social behaviour: when the context enables it, as in
the case of twin fetuses, other-directed actions are not only possible
but predominant over self-directed actions.".


Computer science
==================
In computer science, 'tabula rasa' refers to the development of
autonomous agents with a mechanism to reason and plan toward their
goal, but no "built-in" knowledge-base of their environment. Thus they
truly are a blank slate.

In reality autonomous agents possess an initial data-set or
knowledge-base, but this cannot be immutable or it would hamper
autonomy and heuristic ability. Even if the data-set is empty, it
usually may be argued that there is a built-in bias in the reasoning
and planning mechanisms. Either intentionally or unintentionally
placed there by the human designer, it thus negates the true spirit of
'tabula rasa'.

A synthetic (programming) language parser (LR(1), LALR(1) or SLR(1),
for example) could be considered a special case of a 'tabula rasa', as
it is designed to accept 'any' of a possibly infinite set of source
language programs, within a 'single' programming language, and to
output either a good parse of the program, or a good machine language
translation of the program, either of which represents a 'success',
or, alternately, a 'failure', and nothing else. The "initial data-set"
is a set of tables which are generally produced mechanically by a
parser table generator, usually from a BNF representation of the
source language, and represents a "table representation" of that
'single' programming language.

AlphaZero achieved superhuman performance in various board games using
self-play and 'tabula rasa' reinforcement learning, meaning it had no
access to human games or hardcoded human knowledge about either game,
only being given the rules of the games.


                              See also
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* Innatism
* Pu (Daoism)
* Veil of ignorance


                            Bibliography
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* Aristotle, 'On the Soul' ('De Anima'), W. S. Hett (trans.), pp.
1-203 in 'Aristotle, Volume 8', Loeb Classical Library, William
Heinemann, London, UK, 1936.
* Avicenna, 'De Anima' ('Fi�l-Nafs'), F. Rahman (trans.), London, UK,
1954.
* Tufail, Ibn, 'The Improvement of Human Reason: Exhibited in the Life
of Hai Ebn Yokdhan' ('Hayy ibn Yaqzan'), Simon Ockley (trans.), pp.
1-195, Edm. Powell, London, Great Britain, 1708.
* Aquinas, Thomas, 'Summa Theologica', Fathers of the English
Dominican Province (trans.), Daniel J. Sullivan (ed.), vols. 19-20 in
Robert Maynard Hutchins (ed.), 'Great Books of the Western World',
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., Chicago, IL, 1952.
* Locke, John, 'An Essay Concerning Human Understanding', Kenneth P.
Winkler (ed.), pp. xix (Editor's Introduction) and 33-36 (Book II,
Chap. I, 1-9), Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis, IN, 1996
[1689].
*


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