From Locke's "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding" as quoted in Pinker's new book "The Blank Slate":
Let us then suppose the mind to be, as we say, white paper void of all characters, without any ideas. How comes it to be furnished? Whence comes it by that vast store which the busy and boundless fancy of man has painted on it with an almost endless variety? Whence has it all the materials of reason and knowledge? To this I answer, in one word, from experience.
I'm not even finished with "How the Mind Works" and already Pinker has a new book out. I'm so behind in my reading...
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