26 July 2007 | Life, WTF | Suneth Mendis

On my way home from work couple of days ago, I was listening to a podcast by Dr.Nigel Warburton. The podcast was essentially about John Locke essay on "Human Understading". It was purely by accident I came across this podcast and quite honestly made me think! 

The fundamental idea behind Locke's theory is "Contents of human mind are transparent to itself". Meaning if you are having a thought, you should know the contents of that thought! Simply put, if you think about.. lets say "Cheese Cake", you should know why that thought came to your mind. So according to him, it is not sensible to think about cheese cake and not knowing why you thought about cheese cake! Well it sounds perfect. I mean it make sense. 

But after thinking it over for a while, I thought the converse argument was rather interesting. If you don't have the access to the contents of your thought, then you shouldn't have a thought at all. Also means that if you have done something then you should remember why you did that. If you don't remember, then you have not done it! 

If you think about it further, this theory will be the silver bullet all the crooks have been waiting for. You simply have to say, "No your honor, I don't remember steeling this man's car!". Also you will not be responsible for all the things you did while you were drunk the other day! Because I bet you don't remember! Brilliant idea isn't it?

But unfortunately, law does not accept Locke's theory… 

Popularity: 26% [?]