what is a theme? the oxford learner’s dictionary defines a theme as, the subject or main idea in a talk, piece of writing or work of art . the cambridge dictionary defines the same as the main subject of a talk, book, film, etc. judging from the definitions above, as well as from ordinary usage of the word in daily talk, the word “theme” relates to the degree and/or intensity of occurrence of an expressed idea on a specific subject. thus, the more expressed an idea is, the more likely that it is a theme of a subject. using a theme, the frequency, commonality or popularity of an expressed idea is more important than the strength, correctness and meaningfulness of it. what is important is how widely it is held, as evidenced by how frequently it is expressed. it is because of this nature of a theme that it has found unprecedented importance in constructivist-based research approaches that value subjectivity. as far as constructivists are concerned, a theme can never be wrong. content held within it might be incorrect but this does not make it less of a theme. the point is as long as ideas behind it are commonly held, then it is a theme. rené descartes: philosopher, scientist, mathematician (1596– 1650) rené descartes was born in 1596 in la haye en touraine, france. he studied law, mathematics, philosophy, natural metaphysics and others. many sources in the modern literature regard rené descartes as the father of modern philosophy. he wrote over twenty published works in his lifetime including meditations on first philosophy, meditations and other metaphysical writings, meditations on first philosophy: with selections from the objections and replies, discours de la méthode, the rationalists: descartes among others. types of ideas according to rené descartes, all ideas can be classified under one or more of these three groups: innate, adventitious, and “factitious”. descartes argues that a human being is born with a concoction of ideas. these he termed innate ideas – ideas coming from inside. most ideas, however, come from outside one’s mind and were therefore external. descartes called these adventitious ideas. finally, some ideas are generated by an individual and these he called factitious ideas. while the concept of adventitious and factitious in modern science and philosophy, the innate ideas view -the view that a human being is born with ideas is vehemently debated. another philosophical figure, john locke asserted that human beings are born with a clear mind. all our ideas are developed from our interactions with our environment. ideas are therefore a result of sensed experiences and locke calls this line of thinking empiricism. is envisaged ideas for example, themes, ideas, are developed through the interaction of the external like 3