Precious Crocs

UVA, October or November 2007

Innate Ideas

I checked out an old copy of Locke's "Essay Concerning Human Understanding" yesterday. It was printed in 1905. When I opened it up, I was disappointed to find out that it wasn't the complete "Essay", as Books I and III, and parts of II and IV, had been omitted. The perplexing thing is that in the editor's explanation of these omissions she says that Book I is omitted because "the innate-idea controversy is a dead issue". What's perplexing is that the she doesn't bother to mention which side of this controversy she thinks has turned out to be right. She simply takes it to be too obvious to be worth stating. But what was the consensus on this question in 1905? I have no idea. Did behaviorism (in the teens) upset the 1905 consensus (only to be upset itself by Chomsky)? Anyone have any idea?