In philosophy, ideas are taken as mental representational images of some object. Ideas can be abstract concepts that do not present as mental images. Many philosophers have considered ideas to be a fundamental ontological category of being; the capacity to create and understand the meaning of ideas is considered to be an essential and defining feature of human beings. In a popular sense, an idea arises in a reflexive, spontaneous manner without thinking or serious reflection, for example, when we talk about the idea of a person or a place. A new or original idea can lead to innovation; the word idea comes from Greek ἰδέα idea "form, pattern," from the root of ἰδεῖν idein, "to see." One view on the nature of ideas is that there exist some ideas which are so general and abstract that they could not have arisen as a representation of an object of our perception but rather were in some sense always present. These are distinguished from adventitious ideas which are images or concepts which are accompanied by the judgment that they are caused or occasioned by an external object.

Another view holds that we only discover ideas in the same way that we discover the real world, from personal experiences. The view that humans acquire all or all their behavioral traits from nurture is known as tabula rasa. Most of the confusions in the way ideas arise is at least in part due to the use of the term "idea" to cover both the representation perceptics and the object of conceptual thought; this can be always illustrated in terms of the scientific doctrines of innate ideas, "concrete ideas versus abstract ideas", as well as "simple ideas versus complex ideas". Plato in Ancient Greece was one of the earliest philosophers to provide a detailed discussion of ideas and of the thinking process. Plato argued in dialogues such as the Phaedo, Symposium and Timaeus that there is a realm of ideas or forms, which exist independently of anyone who may have thoughts on these ideas, it is the ideas which distinguish mere opinion from knowledge, for unlike material things which are transient and liable to contrary properties, ideas are unchanging and nothing but just what they are.

Plato seems to assert forcefully that material things can only be the objects of opinion. Furthermore, ideas for Plato appear to serve as universals. "Yes, so we do." "And we assert that there is a fair itself, a good itself, so on for all things that we set down as many. Now, again, we refer to them as one idea of each. "That's so." "And, moreover, we say that the former are seen, but not intellected, while the ideas are intellected but not seen." Descartes wrote of the meaning of idea as an image or representation but not "in the mind", well known in the vernacular. Despite that Descartes is credited with the invention of the non-Platonic use of the term, he at first followed this vernacular use.b In his Meditations on First Philosophy he says, "Some of my thoughts are like images of things, it is to these alone that the name'idea' properly belongs." He sometimes maintained that ideas were innate and uses of the term idea diverge from the original primary scholastic use. He provides multiple non-equivalent definitions of the term, uses it to refer to as many as six distinct kinds of entities, divides ideas inconsistently into various genetic categories.

For him knowledge took the form of ideas and philosophical investigation is the deep consideration of these entities. In striking contrast to Plato's use of idea is that of John Locke. In his Introduction to An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Locke defines idea as "that term which, I think, serves best to stand for whatsoever is the object of the understanding when a man thinks, I have used it to express whatever is meant by phantasm, species, or whatever it is which the mind can be employed about in thinking, he said he regarded the book necessary to examine our own abilities and see what objects our understandings were, or were not, fitted to deal with. In his philosophy other outstanding figures followed in his footsteps — Hume and Kant in the 18th century, Arthur Schopenhauer in the 19th century, Bertrand Russell, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Karl Popper in the 20th century. Locke always believed in good sense — not pushing things to extremes and on taking into account the plain facts of the matter.

He considered his common-sense ideas "good-tempered and down-to-earth." As John Locke studied humans in his work “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” he continually referenced Descartes for ideas as he asked this fundamental question: “When we are concerned with something about which we have no certain knowledge, what rules or standards should guide how confident we allow ourselves to be that our opinions are right?” A simpler way of putting it is how do humans know ideas, what are the different types of ideas. An idea to Locke “can mean some sort of brute experience.” He shows that there are “No innate principles in the mind.”. Thus, he concludes that “our ideas are all experiential in nature.” An experience can either be a sensation or a reflection: “consider whether there are any innate ideas in the mind before any are brought in by the impression from sensation or reflection.” Therefore, an idea was an exper

Verkykerskop is a town in Phumelela Local Municipality in the Free State province of South Africa, located on the R722. The town is 40 km from Harrismith, just off the N3. Village some 35 km east-south-east of Warden and 40 km south-west of Memel. Afrikaans for'spy hill', literally'farlooker's hill', the name appears to have been taken over from Tafelkop, a hill 2,153 m high to the south-west of it. Sitting on a hill on the Free State side of the border with KwaZulu-Natal, it is described as a tiny village with fewer than 20 residents in town, a few hundred more living in surrounding villages, it is known for having one of the lowest crime levels in South Africa. What to do, where to stay, drink in Verkykerskop

The Narikuravar is an indigenous community from Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The main occupation of the people who belong to the indigenous tribes, is hunting, but as they were prohibited entry into the forests to pursue this livelihood, they were forced to take up other alternatives such as selling beaded ornaments to survive. Hence, they migrate from place to place to find a market for their beads. Children accompany the adults which means they never get to attend school. During British rule in India they were placed under Criminal Tribes Act 1871, hence stigmatized for a long time, after Independence. However, they were denotified in 1952; the word "Narikurava" is a combination of the Tamil words "Nari" and "Kurava" meaning "jackal people" or the "fox people". This appellation has been bestowed upon them due to their adeptness in trapping jackals; as per a theory propounded by Werth in 1966 and Fraser, authorities on the gypsies of Europe, believes that the Domar are the ancestors of the Romani people and therefore, the Narikuravas are related to the Romani.

While Edgar Thurston feels that they are related to the Khonds of Orissa. The Narikuravas speak. Due to this reason, they are known as Vagris or Vagrivalas. All Narikuravas are well-versed in Tamil. However, most of the Narikurava liturgical hymns and folk songs are in Vagriboli. Although all vagirivala or kuruvikarar come under one roof based on their common clan name nari-kuravars they were broadly sub-divided into two sub-divisions: the buffalo-sacrificers and Nandevala or goat-sacrificers, but they are Commonly classified based on the region. The Seliyos have only one sub-sect—the Vithiyo; each Narikurava clan has a bundle of clothes called sami-mootai meaning "God's bundle". It is filled with blood of animals sacrificed by the clothes dipped in them; the sami-mootai of one clan must not be touched by members of another clan. On the death of the head of the family, his eldest son inherits the sami-mootai; the prestige a clan-leader holds depends on the antiquity of his sami-mootai. Silambam is a stick fighting style that originated from the Kurinji hills some 5000 years ago, where the native Narikuravar used bamboo staves called Silambamboo to defend themselves against wild animals.

The major issues which confront Narikuravas are poverty, illiteracy and discrimination. There has been discrimination of Narikuravas since ancient times. Due to their consumption of animals tabooed by settled Hindu communities and other habits, they are considered untouchable and are excluded from streets inhabited by upper castes; this has led to protests and resentment from the community. However, the Narikuravas are yet to be recognized as a scheduled tribe. High crime rates and unemployment are other problems; the proscription of fox-hunting as well as killing endangered species of birds and wildlife have depleted the Narikuravas of their traditional sources of livelihood. As a result, unemployed Narikurava youth are taking to crime and illegal activities. There have been instances when Narikurava have been arrested for the possession of unregistered firearms as country rifles which are banned according to the Indian laws. On 1996, a social-welfare organization named Narikurava Seva Sangam was formed in order to educate Narikurava children and facilitate them to lead a settled life.

Other social-welfare organizations, have poured in their efforts to improve the lives of the Narikuravas. In May 2008, the creation of a Welfare Board for the Narikuravas headed by the Backward Classes Minister was authorized by the State Government. Steady progress is being made in assimilating them into society; the demand for the Welfare Board and remove them from the Backward Class list and include them into Scheduled Tribes. Domba Dom people Origins of the Romani people Viramma. Viramma: Life of an Untouchable. Translated by Hobson, Will. Verso. ISBN 1-85984-817-6. Hatch, William John; the Land Pirates of India. Seeley, Service & Co. Chatty, Dawn. Conservation and Mobile Indigenous Peoples. Berghahn Books. ISBN 1-57181-842-1. Hatch, William John; the Land Pirates of India. Seeley, Service & Co. Vijayathilakan, J. P.. Studies on Vaagrivala. Madras Christian College, Department of Statistics. Sathyanandan, D. Theodore; the Problems of Narikorava Community in Tamilnadu. Christian Literature Society. Thurston, Edgar.

Castes and Tribes of Southern India Volume IV - K: Kuruvikkaran, Pg 181 to 187. Madras: Government Press. Media related to Narikurava people at Wikimedia Commons