Tabula rasa

A tabula rasa – the Latin phrase is pronounced with the stress on the first syllable of each word (IPA: /'tæbjə lə 'rɑːsə/) - is a writing tablet on which the wax has been scraped smooth, i.e., a tablet from which all the writing has been removed. More loosely, but in more idiomatic English, tabula rasa may be translated as 'a clean slate.'

The phrase tabula rasa is used in two different contexts. In everyday life two individuals with a history of mutual antagonism may agree to put aside their past disagreements and start afresh with a tabula rasa or 'clean slate'. (The image underlying this use of tabula rasa is that of a tablet or slate on which what has been written is wiped away.) In philosophy, however, tabula rasa has a quite different use. Empiricist philosophers, i.e., philosophers who claim that all human knowledge is acquired through or based on experience and that no knowledge is innate – among them, most famously, John Locke (1632-1704) – sometimes speak of the human mind as being at birth a tabula rasa, a clean slate, like 'white paper, void of all characters' (Locke, Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Bk II). (The image underlying this use of tabula rasa is that of a clean tablet or slate, which is subsequently 'written on' by experience.)