What's within?: nativism reconsidered
by Cowie, Fiona
This iconoclastic book reconsiders the influential nativist position toward the mind. Nativists assert that some concepts, beliefs, or capacities are innate or inborn: "native" to the mind rather than acquired. Fiona Cowie argues that this view is mistaken, demonstrating that nativism is an unstable amalgam of two quite different - and probably inconsistent - theses about the mind. Unlike empiricists, who postulate domain-neutral learning strategies, nativists insist that some learning tasks re…
Read More ↓Title Statements
- Full title :What's within? : nativism reconsidered / Fiona Cowie.
Summary
This iconoclastic book reconsiders the influential nativist position toward the mind. Nativists assert that some concepts, beliefs, or capacities are innate or inborn: "native" to the mind rather than acquired. Fiona Cowie argues that this view is mistaken, demonstrating that nativism is an unstable amalgam of two quite different - and probably inconsistent - theses about the mind. Unlike empiricists, who postulate domain-neutral learning strategies, nativists insist that some learning tasks require special kinds of skills, and that these skills are hard-wired into our brains at birth. This "faculties hypothesis" finds its modern expression in the views of Noam Chomsky. Cowie, marshaling recent empirical evidence from developmental psychology, psycholinguistics, computer science, and linguistics, provides a crisp and timely critique of Chomsky's nativism and defends in its place a moderately nativist approach to language acquisition. What's Within? is a clear and bold achievement in the study of the human mind, one which will surely provoke debate among philosophers of mind, cognitive scientists, linguists, and psychologists, as well as engage anyone interested in the nature of the mind
Read More ↓Edition Statements
- Publication Date:1999.
Publication Statements
- Publisher(s):Oxford University Press
- Place of Publication:New York
- Language:eng
- Publication Date:1999.
The Physical Object
- Description:1 online resource (xvii, 334 pages) : : illustrations
Edition Identifiers
- ISBN:0585255970, 9780585255972, 9780199849529, 0199849528, 9786610471553, 661047155X
- oclc:ocm45727866
- LC Classification:BF341
- Dewey Decimal:149/.7
Table of Contents
pt. I. The Historical Debate. 1. What Nativism Is Not. 2. What Nativism Is: I. The Hypothesis of Special Faculties. 3. What Nativism Is: II. The Mystery Hypothesis -- pt. II. Concept Acquisition: Problem or Mystery? 4. The Case Against Empiricism. 5. The Constitution Hypothesis. 6. Prospects for a Psychology of Concept Acquisition -- pt. III. The Fate of the Faculties Hypothesis. 7. Language-Learning: From Behaviorism to Nativism. 8. The Poverty of the Stimulus. 9. The Logical Problem of Language Acquisition. 10. The Role of Universal Grammar in Language-Learning. 11. Will the Evidence for Linguistic Nativisim Please Stand Up?
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