John Locke suggested that we are blank slates (tabula rasa) at birth. We come into this world without any knowledge. The alternative is that we have some inherent programming.
For example, Carl Jung believed that we have a sort of "collective unconscious", a set of primordial myths that we are born with, and that are remarkably similar across cultures that have never met. From these myths, we form archetypes that appear in dreams and in wakefulness and which help us interpret the world. For instance, the archetype of the Mother is an idea that all humans are aware of to some extent.
Sigmund Freud postulated that we are born pure id, unchecked desire, and ws develop an ego (personality) and super-ego (conscience) over our pre-adolescent years. This Super-ego is basically the Holy Spirit that talks to us. Jimminy-Cricket.
Myers and Briggs took Carl Jung's archetypes and created four axis that define human personality. These axis are Introverted/Extroverted, iNtuition/Sensation, Thinking/Feeling, and Perceiving/Judging. Combined, there are 16 personality types, each one a primordial archetype. I am INTJ, a "Mastermind", which presents in about 1% of the human population.
These are, as I said, based off of our collective unconscious, and are therefore definitively not conscious. The first goal of consciousness is to become aware of these factors and dismantle them by thinking logically and consistently about them. The collective consciousness is found in logical reasoning -- deductive, inductive, and hypothetical-deductive.
A common theme in literature is something known as the "hero's journey", which any fan of fantastical or mythological literature has seen in action. Stories follow definite patterns, and every writer of sufficient creativity has accidentally stumbled across this formula, and angrily tore out their hair trying to get around it while still creating an engaging tale.
But I might be wrong. Are we blank slates at birth? Do we come into this world with no prior conception of anything, including myth and religion? Do these themes recur because they are a logical and inevitable direction of thought, or is it a pre-programmed and instinctive consequence of having to survive in this world of human relationships?
