The Objectivist Theory of Concept Formation as Valid

There are five possible answers to the question of where concepts come from. Either:

1. there is a process that happens in the human mind to construct them from sensory data (Reason);
2. they exist in the human mind as innate ideas;
3. there exists some other (mystic) means for acquiring new information (including concepts) completely independent of the senses;
4. concepts don’t exist, or;
5. humans do not have epistemic access to concepts.

(1) is the pro-reason, Objectivist viewpoint. On the Objectivist theory of concepts, a concept is an integration of perceptual data, which rules out innate ideas:

Consciousness begins as a tabula rasa (a blank slate); all of its conceptual content is derived from the evidence of the senses.¹

Furthermore, innate knowledge violates the law of causality, the law of causality is true, therefore innate knowledge cannot exist. This means that option (2) is false.

Option (3), is wrong because mysticism is invalid.

Options (4) and (5) both rely on language in their statement, language is itself conceptual, so they wipe themselves out.