Empiricism

===Islamic Golden Age and Pre-Renaissance (5th to 15th centuries CE)===
During the [[Middle Ages]] (from the 5th to the 15th century CE) Aristotle's theory of ''tabula rasa'' was developed by [[Islamic philosophy|Islamic philosophers]] starting with [[Al Farabi]] ({{Circa|872|951 CE}}), developing into an elaborate theory by [[Avicenna]] (c.  980 – 1037 CE)<ref name=Rizvi/> and demonstrated as a [[thought experiment]] by [[Ibn Tufail]].<ref name=Russell/> For Avicenna ([[Avicenna|Ibn Sina]]), for example, the ''tabula rasa'' is a pure potentiality that is actualized through [[education]], and knowledge is attained through "empirical familiarity with objects in this world from which one abstracts universal concepts" developed through a "[[Syllogism|syllogistic]] method of [[reasoning]] in which observations lead to propositional statements which when compounded lead to further abstract concepts". The [[intellect]] itself develops from a [[passive intellect|material intellect]] (''al-'aql al-hayulani''), which is a [[potentiality]] "that can acquire knowledge to the [[active intellect]] (''al-[['aql]] al-fa'il''), the state of the human intellect in conjunction with the perfect source of knowledge".<ref name=Rizvi>Sajjad H. Rizvi (2006), [http://www.iep.utm.edu/a/avicenna.htm Avicenna/Ibn Sina (c. 980–1037)], ''[[Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy]]''</ref> So the immaterial "active intellect", separate from any individual person, is still essential for understanding to occur.

In the 12th century CE, the [[Al-Andalus|Andalusian]] [[Muslim]] philosopher and novelist Abu Bakr [[Ibn Tufail]] (known as "Abubacer" or "Ebu Tophail" in the West) included the theory of ''tabula rasa'' as a [[thought experiment]] in his [[Arabic literature|Arabic philosophical novel]], ''[[Hayy ibn Yaqdhan]]'' in which he depicted the development of the mind of a [[feral child]] "from a ''tabula rasa'' to that of an adult, in complete isolation from society" on a [[desert island]], through experience alone. The [[Latin]] translation of his [[philosophical novel]], entitled ''Philosophus Autodidactus'', published by [[Edward Pococke]] the Younger in 1671, had an influence on [[John Locke]]'s formulation of ''tabula rasa'' in ''[[An Essay Concerning Human Understanding]]''.<ref name=Russell>G. A. Russell (1994), ''The 'Arabick' Interest of the Natural Philosophers in Seventeenth-Century England'', pp. 224–62, [[Brill Publishers]], {{ISBN|90-04-09459-8}}</ref>

A similar [[Islamic theology|Islamic theological]] novel, ''[[Theologus Autodidactus]]'', was written by the Arab theologian and physician [[Ibn al-Nafis]] in the 13th century. It also dealt with the theme of empiricism through the story of a feral child on a desert island, but departed from its predecessor by depicting the development of the protagonist's mind through contact with society rather than in isolation from society.<ref name="Roubi">Dr. Abu Shadi Al-Roubi (1982), "Ibn Al-Nafis as a philosopher", ''Symposium on Ibn al-Nafis'', Second International Conference on Islamic Medicine: Islamic Medical Organization, Kuwait ([[cf.]] [http://www.islamset.com/isc/nafis/drroubi.html Ibn al-Nafis As a Philosopher] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080206072116/http://www.islamset.com/isc/nafis/drroubi.html |date=February 6, 2008 }}, ''Encyclopedia of Islamic World'')</ref>

During the 13th century [[Thomas Aquinas]] adopted into [[scholasticism]] the [[Aristotelianism|Aristotelian]] position that the senses are essential to the mind. [[Bonaventure]] (1221–1274), one of Aquinas' strongest intellectual opponents, offered some of the strongest arguments in favour of the Platonic idea of the mind.