The Problem of Truth: Innate or Acquired

Descartes believed God enabled human beings to know all the truths of the world but only through the use of reason. However, Locke opposes Descartes view. Locke believes “it is false that reason discovers them” (them referring to truths) (I. ii 9, pg 15). A little bit later in Section 9 on page 15 Locke says, “if men have those innate impressed truths originally, and before the use of reason, and yet are always ignorant of them till they come to the use of reason, it is in effect to say that men know, and know them not, at the same time.” This is an excellent point Locke makes. How can you know something and not know it simultaneously? As Locke points out, it doesn’t make sense. The Stanford Encyclopedia also mentioned, “Locke's first point is that if propositions were innate they should be immediately perceived — by infants and idiots (and indeed everyone else) — but there is no evidence that they are.” So obviously Locke strongly argues against Descartes philosophy of innate truths.