Tabula Rasa is Latin for blank slate, and it was used by empiricist philosophers to counteract such rationalistic theories as the Cartesian notion of innate ideas. Basically, Descartes, when coining the phrase 'I think therefore I am', construed that there exists some 'thinking thing' which is innate or inborn, a priori in the sense that there are (or there 'is' in this case) ideas that exist prior to experience with the external world. Descartes used the example of the idea of God as one which exists prior to experience, but other philosophers, such as Plato and Socrates, argued that knowledge of mathematical or geometrical forms were also innate.
Empiricist philosophers such as John Locke stated that this doctrine of innate knowledge was, in fact, erroneous. Basically, Locke argued that no ideas or knowledge can exist in a human mind without first that human having had some sense-experience with the outside world. It is through our senses that ideas and knowledge is formulated - when we eat something sour, we know only that it is sour after tasting it. It is not something we know of PRIOR to tasting it, thus prior to the sense-experience of taste. This is otherwise known as 'a posterior' knowledge. Hence, all human beings when born are tabula rasa's, or blank slates, upon which ideas are formulated by sense-impressions (from experience).
Having said that, I'm not sure WHAT this song means in reference to it's title.. And I'm afraid that although the lyrics are sublime, I'm sceptical of whether Sinch knew what Tabula Rasa meant either :/
Tabula Rasa is Latin for blank slate, and it was used by empiricist philosophers to counteract such rationalistic theories as the Cartesian notion of innate ideas. Basically, Descartes, when coining the phrase 'I think therefore I am', construed that there exists some 'thinking thing' which is innate or inborn, a priori in the sense that there are (or there 'is' in this case) ideas that exist prior to experience with the external world. Descartes used the example of the idea of God as one which exists prior to experience, but other philosophers, such as Plato and Socrates, argued that knowledge of mathematical or geometrical forms were also innate.
Empiricist philosophers such as John Locke stated that this doctrine of innate knowledge was, in fact, erroneous. Basically, Locke argued that no ideas or knowledge can exist in a human mind without first that human having had some sense-experience with the outside world. It is through our senses that ideas and knowledge is formulated - when we eat something sour, we know only that it is sour after tasting it. It is not something we know of PRIOR to tasting it, thus prior to the sense-experience of taste. This is otherwise known as 'a posterior' knowledge. Hence, all human beings when born are tabula rasa's, or blank slates, upon which ideas are formulated by sense-impressions (from experience).
Having said that, I'm not sure WHAT this song means in reference to it's title.. And I'm afraid that although the lyrics are sublime, I'm sceptical of whether Sinch knew what Tabula Rasa meant either :/