ABSTRACT
The newborn mind was considered a blank tablet on which experience would write messages, and the dissimilarities between individuals were attributed solely to differences in education. Between the extremes of considering the mind either sophisticated or naive at birth, contemporary opinion holds that both genetic and experiential components are essential, although their functions and relative importance remain controversial. The concept of the mindless newborn brain is useful because it clarifies one's search for the origin of the mind. If this origin depended on genetic endowment, then mental functions should appear in the absence of other external elements. Even if reception of sensory information is accepted as totally essential for the onset and development of mental functions, it is more or less explicitly assumed that an adult has a well-established mental capacity which functions with relative independence from the environment.
