The Problem of Truth: How do we acquire truths?

Although Locke argues against the idea of innate truths, he does admit that some truths do appear very early in the mind. Our mind obtains truth by using our sense organs. “The senses at first let in particular ideas, and furnish the yet empty cabinet” (I ii 15, pg 17). And as we start filling the “empty cabinet” with ideas and language we begin to use reason more. Locke argues that before a child can speak or use reason he or she can distinguish between bitter and sweet. The child is acquiring truth but not using reason to do so. He also argues that a child does not know that four and three are equal to seven until he or she learns how to count. In Section 16 of Book 1 Chap 2 (page 18) Locke says, “but the truth of it appears to him (the child) as soon as he has settled in his mind the clear and distinct ideas that these names stand for; and then he knows the truth of that proposition upon the same grounds, and by the same means, that he knew before, that a rod and cherry are not the same thing.” Locke is definitely in opposition to the idea of having any innate ideas and even innate truths. His opposition proves even stronger when later in Book I he opposes the idea of God as being innate.