Although Plato's views are not supported today, he laid the groundwork for other researchers to follow. .
Alternatively, philosopher Aristotle theorized a different idea about human behavior. He presented the idea that humans are born into the world with a "blank slate" and people's behavior and thoughts are due to experience (Ashcraft, 1998). His tabula rasa explanation believed that the environment and experience were the important influences in human behavior. Unlike Plato, Aristotle hypothesized that humans were not born with knowledge, but they acquire it through experience (Ashcraft, 1998). Aristotle's idea of the tabula rasa is not believed today. Nevertheless, his belief that the environment was a vital factor in behavior influenced many empiricists throughout history.
During the late 1700s, the nature vs. nurture debate began to heat up between philosophers. Internalists (nature) and empiricists (nurture) wrote literature back and forth trying to prove their beliefs and disprove the other theories. Two philosophers, G.W. Leibniz and John Locke, were the main representatives of their respected explanations. Leibniz promoted the externalism point of view. Cowie states, ".Leibniz's position on this issue is, of course, that the tabula is far from rasa: "The soul inherently contains the sources of various notions and doctrines, which external objects merely rouse up.' " (Cowie, 1999, p. 7). Leibniz argued against Locke and other empiricists stated that ".there is no way ideas which come into the mind from outside can be formed into beliefs and judgments without the operation of specific internal mechanisms" (Cowie, 1999, p. 17).
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Simultaneously, John Locke and his fellow philosophers campaigned for empiricism. Like Aristotle, the philosophers believed that humans" thoughts and actions were determined not by innate factors, but by the their unique experiences (Ashcraft, 1998). Locke argued against the internalists by tentatively examining different human processes such as logic and reasoning.
