Frankenstein's Monster's Blank Slate

In Frankenstein, the monster begins his tale by recounting to Dr. Frankenstein the “original era of [his] being.” He starts out his life in solitude and in a state of disorientation: “No distinct ideas occupied my mind; all was confused.” The monster’s experience is strikingly representative of John Locke’s theory of mind as a blank slate. At first, he can barely discern a leaf from a bird, but his senses gradually become adjusted to his environment. He eventually becomes able to distinguish the different sights and sounds of his surroundings from each other. He says, “I began also to observe, with greater accuracy, the forms that surrounded me…”

The monster makes his way through the woods, encountering new objects. He discovers foods to eat, streams to drink from, and eventually he stumbles across an abandoned fire, which he attempts to maintain and resurrect. Through his experience and practical application of the these things, he is gathering more and more knowledge. Not all his experience is positive, however, as he comes across humans who are so frightened of his appearance that they chase him away. Despaired by his complete and utter dejection, the monster says that he “wished to tear up the trees, spread havoc and destruction around me, and then to have sat down and enjoyed the ruin.” The detestation and rejection he has experienced is beginning to form his personality; he becomes an enraged and hateful being.

John Locke: Tabula Rasa

John Locke’s An Essay Concerning Human Understanding was his argument against earlier philosophers‘, such as Rene Decartes, rationalist theory of knowledge, which proposed that ideas are innate in us and that we discover the knowledge through reasoning and deduction. Locke was a proponent of empiricism, which is the theory that the mind starts off as a blank slate - except for having certain mental processes - and that we gain knowledge through our experience of the world around us.

The idea of the blank slate, or tabula rasa, dates all the way back to Aristotle. This view states that the mind is formed with certain mental capacities, but is overall devoid of ideas or knowledge. This contrasted with the rationalist view that ideas are innate and put into our minds by a higher power. According to Locke, our sensory perception is responsible for our experience of facts and evidence in the world, which we then interpret into knowledge. He went on to suggest that, not only does the blank slate leave the individual free to acquire knowledge, it also leaves him free to form his personality, his identity.

Source: NIU/NWE

The Enlightement Philosopher thinker Hume David

• The scientific approach led many European Philosophers to believe in the power of of human reason and the perfectibility of mankind.
• Enlightenment  thinkers urged religious toleration.
• sought to "discover" the law of human behavior
• The Enlightenment thinkers trusted nature and human reason but distrusted institution.

The Enlightenment was partly the product of continued social, political, and religious tension.

David Hume-Scottish philosopher
One of the  enlightment thinkers in the early 18th century, was David Hume. He was a philosopher and in the area of
skepticism.  It seems he questions Gods divinity, and also humans beings imperfection and our trustworthiness.
This simply means that we are born with certan traits which effects our actions, and therefore may not
be reality.  This was in opposite to rationalist thought, and was "instrumental in the shift away from rationalist thought that ended the Enlightenment".

(http://www.sparknotes.com/history/europeans/enlightenment/terms.html)http://www.sparknotes.com/history/europeans/enlightenment/terms.html

Definition of The Enlightenment.

The Enlightenment was a European intellectual movement that happened in the 17th and 18th centuries, influenced by 17th-century philosophers Descartes, Locke, Newton, and others. Prominent supporters of The Enlightenment included philosophers and/or writers Kant, Goethe, Voltaire, and Adam Smith. The movement emphasized reason over tradition. (Source: Oxford Dictionary)

According to general Enlightenment beliefs included:

1) The ability to reason is the most important ability a human has.

2) Reason allows one to break free from primitive and superstitious beliefs; through reason, one betters him- or herself, learning to think and act correctly.

3) Reason will make the world better and better.

3) No belief should be accepted just because a priest (or a similar figure) said it, or because it's what people have always believed. Beliefs should only be accepted on the basis of reason.

4) Knowledge is more important than emotion.

(Source: PBS)