Ideas

Where do ideas come from? John Locke had the theory that ideas had to come from either sensation or reflection. He saw them as the fountains of knowledge from which all thoughts that we have or can naturally have do spring. Therefore the mind itself cannot make or create simple ideas. Therefore, where can we get these sensations and reflections? The answer is, the public intellectual.

We are all individuals attempting to work together in a society as a cohesive unit. In order for each individual to comprehend and not be overwhelmed by the extensive amount of knowledge that is available in this world, we need others that we respect to help guide our mode of thought. It is hard enough to be deeply entrenched in one subject of thought, have one expertise; therefore, you would inevitable go crazy trying to be a modern day renaissance man/woman. When we are born we have the blank slate, the tabula rasa that we yearn to fill with something worthy of being etched into our mind. The public intellectual serves as a sort of filter for the mass public, letting them know what sensations we must perceive and what reflections should be reflected upon.