Date of Award

6-1926

Degree Type

Bachelors Essay

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts (BA)

Department

Philosophy

First Advisor

John McCormick

Second Advisor

William M. Magee

Abstract

Here is a paradox. The child is father to the man, and philosophically considered, this is doubly true. During that short journey between the advent of that immacu­late 'tabula rasa' and the age of reason, the 'homo sapiens' accepts great truths and rests satisfied, seeming to grasp intuitively the profound logic and recondite study behind them. For example, the child of four or five years is app­rehended in the replete pantry busily consuming a jar of jam; mother reprimands it severely,saying that it should not do such a thing. "Why?", is the spontaneous and wholly innocent question. "Because jam is not good for you", ans­wers the mother. Whereupon, baby toddles to another room, there to spot clean linen with the remains of the jam, or to upset the goldfish; mother's answer was sufficient - jam was not good for baby. Herein does the child manifest an erudition, that later in life he strives assiduously to regain. I say 'regain' because actual fact seems to show that after reason has been come into, the species man under­ goes a temporal philosophic retrogression. No longer does he accept those truths in precocious silence; the imp of the perverse etches a few derogatory doubts on that 'tab­ula rasa', doubts which only years of study may obviate.

Comments

A Thesis Submitted to Fulfill the Requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts

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