Born with knowledge?

Question

I just read this book called Paradise Park by Allegra Goodman. In it, the protagonist Sharon (who believes in Jewish mysticism) talks about how we're born with knowledge but as babies, we have no way of communicating what we know. Also, Socrates said, in that we already have innate knowledge of some things, and we need to be asked the right questions to bring it out. What do you think of this?

Answer 1

Nah
We're born with instinct, not knowledge.
Instinct is a more common word for innate knowledge, what we know when we're born.
Some people can be extremely perceptive and intelligent, which is why the right quesitons might bring out an epiphany from the answerer.
Because intelligent people generally notice trends and patterns more, it makes them more able and likely to put the pieces of the puzzle together.
Which is why some young people are smarter than their comrades.

As for the babies part, to an extent.
I think that half the time babies coo and make noises, they're trying to talk.
Or at least imitate what they've heard.
But since babies spend nine months in the womb listening to our conversations, I think that they would have a good grasp of their native language already
But vocal chords and lung function take time to develop, which impede babies when they try to speak.
Thus the crying.
I read some article that said the reasons chimps don't talk is because of their form and underdeveloped lungs.
Since they don't stand up straight, their lungs aren't in an ideal position for speech.
Plus they have less control over their vocals than humans.
So that leads me to think that babies can't talk for a while because they don't have the proper muscles to speak to us when we talk to them.
But that's about all. I don't think babies know much else than that.

Answer 2

In my opinion, it seems that humans and all living/growing
species must have innate knowledge even if only for
growing. Regardless of culture people grow with
similarities to other people. It is possible that nurture
might have a role in enhancing growth, but even in the
most extreme environments the same types of growth
will occur. Consider an analogy, in the sense of peripheral
vision. I perceive a vast amount of information with my
sight, but I only focus in on a portion of all that information
which is captured. Therefore, the things which I focus
on are known through inspection and the things which
are seen, but not inspected, are stored and even
subconsciously cognized to a limited extent. At a
later time, I might focus in on that information
which was not previously inspected, though the
integrity of that information is likely to be less
comprehensive. The same applications can be
considered for the other senses, and a baby must
also possess senses. Therefore, the baby should
be capable of perception even if the baby doesn't
have the capacity to communicate. In fact, the
baby must have perception which exceeds communication
or else the baby would never learn how to communicate.
Furthermore, I don't see why it shouldn't be possible
that a person shouldn't possess innate knowledge in
so much as the human being created with substance
must have that substance derived from somewhere.

Answer 3

We have talents- ways that our brain works better than other ways. We also have certain animal instincts much as other animals do, and the cravings for food, love, self-expression, relationship with others. The human brain is good at spotting patterns. But innate knowledge of facts I think is going too far.

The strength and unique genius of humankind is that we learn a culture from our parents, and others around us. Children, though no less intelligent than adults, don't know these things and must learn. This ends up being a lot easier to change than instinct, and so we can adapt to new conditions as they arise, unlike animals with only a set of instincts to guide them

Answer 4

I think that people's modern thoughts on being born with talent is similar to Socrates' idea about innate knowledge. I tend to believe that talents (knowledge) does come at birth. But if someone who had a talent for languages never learned any others than their own... How would you or they know? It's 50-50 born and encouraged, I think. Without the drive, ambition, encouragement... You would never reach that level of knowledge. It would always remain innate.

Answer 5

Definitely. I've never read that book or Socrates, but if you consider the possibility that reincarnation is real then it would make sense that we come into each life with accumulated knowledge.

Soon after my daughter was born you could tell by her eyes that she already knew a thing or two, and when my friends started having babies I noticed it in them too. One girlfriend's 2 yr old is a particularly old soul and we can all see it. Another girlfriend's son was always very opinionated, even though he could only make babbling baby sounds. You could tell by his eyes that he was sharing something quite important but we couldn't understand.

As to Socrates suggestion, you can test that out yourself, as demonstrated by Neal Donald Walsch's "Conversations with God" books. A very controversial book in religious circles, Walsch claimed that he wrote questions to God and the answers would come. He collected these writings in three books and shared them with the world and was slammed from all sides for blasphemy or heresy or whatever it is. But I'm a believer, because if we are all a part of God (and why wouldn't we be?) then we carry divinity within us and we have access to it.

Note: I don't actually believe in a god. I believe in The Source (referred to here as "God"), which isn't a man sitting in the clouds lording over the world.

Answer 6

"Man is born tabula rasa; all his knowledge is based on and derived from the evidence of his senses. To reach the distinctively human level of cognition, man must conceptualize his perceptual data—and conceptualization is a process which is neither automatic nor infallible. Man needs to discover a method to guide this process, if it is to yield conclusions which correspond to the facts of reality—i.e., which represent knowledge. The principle at the base of the proper method is the fundamental principle of metaphysics: the Law of Identity. In reality, contradictions cannot exist; in a cognitive process, a contradiction is the proof of an error. Hence the method man must follow: to identify the facts he observes, in a non-contradictory manner. This method is logic—"the art of non-contradictory identification." (Atlas Shrugged.) Logic must be employed at every step of a man's conceptual development, from the formation of his first concepts to the discovery of the most complex scientific laws and theories. Only when a conclusion is based on a noncontradictory identification and integration of all the evidence available at a given time, can it qualify as knowledge."

Answer 7

In asking a question we are demanding choice of one of two reciprocally contradicting propositions or more than two factually inducing propositions for which we have force to reflect upon, and upon reflecting synthesize something. When the subject in its predicate stands in relation to something of our nature, our nature determinant acts upon its self subject, the action its self knowledge of that self acting and an association is produced. This association taken as whole is something new, peculiar, but wholly formed of known facts as particulars and their particulars and posits a new possibility for the future. Self in action upon a new question for that self produce new facts for that self and our substance is innate for that self. How does a self separate the action of self from the innate knowledge which has come as a particular for the subjects association. If you can answer that then you could know what innate knowledge or born-with-knowledge-knowledge is as other than a part in a unified association of knowledge (analogy: multimedia synchronized as one product).

Answer 8

Many have theorized that Mozart was born with the knowledge of how to play the piano, since he showed amazing talent at it at the age of about 4, I think, and had never been trained. At the very least, he was a true prodigy.
Maybe it's Past-Life Recall.

Answer 9

Yes we are born with knowledge, but not the kind that we could communicate. We call this knowledge 'instinct' and there is more of it, and it is more important than you might imagine.

But I have to say babies sometimes look at me as if they had something interesting to say if they could talk!

Answer 10

I guess that's called instinct. Some people are born with more knowledge than others too.