Soul help: Are we born with innate knowledge? - Help.com

I believe we are born innocent, but it takes good parenting, to lay down a foundation of what right and wrong is…

We may know something’s innately…

Yes please clarify, what is the purpose of your question?

I dont think we are born knowing right from wrong, I think we learn as we live.

When your little, you don’t know whats right or wrong. You learn because your parents or people around you tell you whats right and wrong. As you get older you start to figure it out for yourself and you decide what you think is right or wrong.

Certain innate knowledge must exist but I believe that most knowledge is learned through observation of ones environment as we grow up. As to what is right and what is wrong that is completely based upon ones environment as is evident in cultures that allow for incest, youthanasia, or cannabalism. These cultures bring up their young to accept such concepts and they never question it since the culture continues to do such things even though other cultures consider them wrong.

I do not believe in the existence of a soul

We don’t know.

jordan.mason wrote:
I want to know if the human soul is imprinted with knowledge of life before we are born. For example, a small child may be able to rip apart a flash light and put it back together the first time he sees it. How is it that sometimes we just understand, or know, how something works without ever experiencing it prior to that? Are we learning or are we recollecting upon past knowledge we were already endowed with?

I don’t think it has to do with past knowledge, I think it has more to do with your current mindset. Some people are just blessed.

I don’t think people have souls either.

I think this is truly knowable….And does it really matter?

i meant, truly unknowable…

What is a soul? I do not believe in an afterlife or a creator or god or whatever you may wish to call it. I believe that I am an electro-chemical biological compound that has the ability to adapt to its environment to survive long enough to reproduce and perpetuate itself. I do not believe that after I die a part of my electro-chemcical make up leaves my shell of a body and floats off into valhalla or hades or hell or heaven or any other mythical place. Therefore what is a soul? It has not context in reality. It is the conceptualization of a myth and nothing more.

jordan.mason wrote:
Blessed with what? Are they blessed with knowledge of these things from a third-party, like a God? Are they blessed with advanced reasoning? Explain how they are so, if you would please.

From God. How else can you explain 10 year old geniuses? I dont know how, but thats philosphy. I didnt like that class in college because there really are no right or wrong answers.

jordan.mason wrote:
How is it we are able to watch our own thoughts? Be aware of our thinking?

It’s called multitasking.

Our brains are a bio-chemical electro-magnetic computer system of unbelievable scope and capablitiy. Science has not yet developed a way for us to truly ascertain such information. But one day it will be a question that mankind can answer without having to “guess”.

jordan.mason wrote:
Khyron32: You seem to be a very, intelligent person, with well crafted answers and responses.

Thank you very much for that compliment. I have always loved philosophy and I often get into arguements with people over soul’s, religion’s, and creationism’s.

Yes, but we are more than our bodies…what that essential more is, i don’t know…

What really matters is whether such knowledge or wisdom enables us to be wiser and healthier and happier people..

I don’t think so. I think our existence is only the results of our bodies, and after they die, that’s it. We exist no more.

I have no way of proving or being proved either way. in the end to me don’t really matter what we believe, i believe the lives we led,. the examples we set matters far more than what beleifs we have…

no because if we were born with that we wouldnt have different perceptions of what is right and wrong. society and generally religion teaches right and wrong. parents and surroundings too

We are born a blank slate and inherit the traits of our peers. during childhood we learn by watching our parents and others, and our personality’s and social skills are formed mainly by interaction with our own peers.

for example language is not an inherited ability, it is a learned ability as it is purely a social function. without human interaction and the exposure to language we do not learn how to speak or write.

right and wrong are dictated to us from an early age, “dont do this, dont do that” we learn about rules and right and wrong from our early education once again right and wrong are purely social constructs created by humans as a necessity to perform social functions most effectively.

rickyreeve197 wrote:
I believe we are born with knowledge of right and wrong but it is not embedded within our brain as intelligence, it is our sub-consious mind, our souls mind. Basic Human intelligence is what we aquire through our life experiences. Our brain stores information by remembering what our senses tell it. Although we only have five physical senses, the whole process is unlimited due to our environment and interactions. It is through these senses that we learn to either strive towards something or avoid something (happy=good sad=bad) But this only accounts for day to day physical survival. Spirtually we all want to be loved and we all want to love. We instinctivly know it is wrong to hurt another person. Our soul is our higher self, it’s our connection to a higher power. We are all linked to this higher consiousness which I promise if you investigate this you will see that science is on the fringe of proving it.Peace and love to all

Epic fail.

while I wouldn’t hold that humans have a priori concepts a la Kant, I would say structural and archetypal patterns exist in the mind since birth. without some sort of supporting structure, empirical learning would be impossible.

jordan.mason wrote:
Do you think that there is anything to the effect/affect of genetic information being transferred to offspring, altering basic instinctual behaviors and thoughts?

I believe such a proiri notions to be evolutionary mechanisms for learning and social building, sort of a tool-kit to sapience, if you will. Jungian archetypes are present in the same forms in all cultures; however, it is the psycho-linguistic and cultural interpretation of these that lead to differeniation from this innate knowledge. More or less, I believe you are not only given a “tabula rasa”, but chalk to write in, and a small vocabulary of terms to write about.

However, while I’m not against your notion of genetic learning, there doesn’t seem to be any sort of empirical evidence to it: unless physically malformed, newborn infants continue to seek out the mother-principle despite any parental feelings.