Critical Thinking with John Locke
and Unflattening
Kenneth Pichler, Jr.
John Locke was a famous philosopher and political theorist who
lived during the 17th century. He is often regarded as the
founder of a school of thought known as British Empiricism and
he made foundational contributions to modern theories.
According to Patrick J. Connolly, "He was also influential in the
areas of theology, religious toleration, and educational theory.
In his most important work, the Essay Concerning Human
Understanding, Locke set out to offer an analysis of the human
mind and its acquisition of knowledge."
John Locke did not believe in innate ideas; those which you are
essentially born with. Instead he fostered the idea that our mind was more like a blank slate.
Experiences gained through senses and reflection filled this slate. He believed that, instead of actually
experiencing the world first hand, we indirectly experience it through representations or other people.
We are brought into this world and not allowed to form our own ideas, but instead to conform to
society and given our way of thinking from a blank slate. Locke believed everyone sees the world
differently but, through one's own experiences, were able to form images and our own point of view.
Therefore, we are able to associate or relate to one another. As Dr. Sousanis points out in Unflattening1
that we are born into society or a system that we are expected to go through life a certain distinct way
without making our own impression a "flatness." An example of this in Unflattening is in the pictures of
how we're like robots going through the motions of life without our own way of thinking.
John Locke would agree. In his essay Concerning Human Understanding, we are taught how and what to
think from an early age; the "blank slate." There is a perfect example of this on page 10 of Unflattening.
Students are sitting at a desk and the teacher is shooting tentacles of information out of his mouth into
the students' heads. The teacher is telling them what to know and what is expected of them in order for
them to be successful.
There is also assigned seating in the educational system which we are taught at a very early age. It's as if
we are puppets going through the motion of life as described in chapter 7 of Unflattening. Is it wrong,
though, to go through life in a certain way like assigned seating? A study done by Angela Hammang at
Montana State University found that when carefully crafted seating charts were in effect, teachers were
twice as successful reaching students and that the attainment of lower ability students was doubled.
Reprinted from Scholarly Voices
http://scholarlyvoices.org/unflattening/mini/britain-american-civil-war.html
Last updated on 24 July 2015
Photo Credit: Painting by
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My questions are:
1. Is learning a certain way wrong?
2. Does the child who solves the math problem without following the teacher's specific steps
wrong?
3. Are there endless possibilities of learning or gaining knowledge?
4. Is there a right or wrong way learning?
5. Are people only susceptible to gain knowledge through experiences?
6. Are we trained or taught how or what to think like in the military?
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Chapters one and two; specifically pages 3-10.
For Further Reading
Aaron, Richard. John Locke. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1955. Print.
Connolly, Patrick J. "John Locke (1632-1704)." The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Nd. Web.
Dunn, John. John Locke: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford U, 1984. Print.
Fritsch, Christopher N. "A review of John Locke, Toleration and Early Enlightenment Culture by John
Marshall." Seventeenth-Century News. 65.1-2 (2007). Print.
Locke, John. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. London: J.M. Dent & Sons, 1947. Print.
Sousanis, Nick. Unflattening. Cambridge: Harvard Univerity Press, 2015. Print.
Reprinted from Scholarly Voices
http://scholarlyvoices.org/unflattening/mini/britain-american-civil-war.html
Last updated on 24 July 2015
Photo Credit: Painting by
2
Reprinted from Scholarly Voices
http://scholarlyvoices.org/unflattening/mini/britain-american-civil-war.html
Last updated on 24 July 2015
Photo Credit: Painting by
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