Answer to Question 1
- Leibniz was a rationalist with a very modern notion of innate ideas. Rather than viewing them as being stamped on the human mind (Locke's metaphor) in a static, fully formed fashion, Leibniz believes that the human mind at birth contains inclinations, dispositions, tendencies, or natural potentials to form these ideas.
- In the twentieth century, Jean Piaget's work in developmental psychology; Noam Chomsky's work in linguistics; Claude Levi-Strauss's work in anthropology, etc., have developed exhaustive empirical evidence to suggest that humans come equipped with a whole array of innate conceptual structures that develop and become elaborated through their dynamic interaction with experience.
Answer to Question 2
- Russell used the term sense-data to mean things that are immediately perceived through the senses, such as color, sound, smell, texture, etc. and the term sensation to mean the experience of being aware of sense-data.
- Russell said, What we directly see and feel is merely 'appearance,' which we believe to be a sign of some 'reality' behind. But if the reality is not what appears, have we any means of knowing whether there is any reality at all? And if so, have we any means of finding out what it is like?
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