Innate cognitive capacities
Mind and Language 22 (1):92-115 (2007)
| Abstract | This paper attempts to articulate a dispositional account of innateness that applies to cognitive capacities. After criticizing an alternative account of innateness proposed by Cowie (1999) and Samuels (2002), the dispositional account of innateness is explicated and defended against a number of objections. The dispositional account states that an innate cognitive capacity (output) is one that has a tendency to be triggered as a result of impoverished environmental conditions (input). Hence, the challenge is to demonstrate how the input can be compared to the output and shown to be relatively impoverished. I argue that there are robust methods of comparing input to output without measuring them quantitatively. | |||||||||
| Keywords | HIPPOCAMPAL VOLUME DISPOSITIONS BIRDSONG POVERTY NURTURE | |||||||||
| Categories | ||||||||||
| Options |
|
|||||||||
Download options| PhilPapers Archive |
Upload a copy of this paper Check publisher's policy on self-archival Papers currently archived: 5,672 |
| External links |
 |
| Through your library | Configure |
Similar books and articlesRon Mallon & Jonathan M. Weinberg (2006). Innateness as Closed Process Invariance. Philosophy of Science 73 (3):323-344.
Jonathan M. Weinberg & Ron Mallon (2006). Innateness as Closed Process Invariance. Philosophy of Science 73:323–344.
Peter Carruthers (ed.) (2005). The Innate Mind: Structure and Contents. New York: Oxford University Press New York.
Peter Carruthers, Stephen Laurence & Stephen P. Stich (eds.) (2005). The Innate Mind. Oxford University Press.
Richard Samuels (2004). Innateness in Cognitive Science. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 8 (3):136-141.
David Papineau (2006). The Cultural Origins of Cognitive Adaptations. Royal Institute of Philosophy Supplement 80 (56):24-.
Denise D. Cummins & Robert C. Cummins (1999). Biological Preparedness and Evolutionary Explanation. Cognition 73 (3):B37-B53.
Muhammad Ali Khalidi (2009). Should We Eliminate the Innate? Reply to Griffiths and Machery. Philosophical Psychology 22 (4):505 – 519.
Muhammad Ali Khalidi (2001). Innateness and Domain-Specificity. Philosophical Studies 105 (2):191-210.
Muhammad Ali Khalidi (2002). Nature and Nurture in Cognition. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 53 (2):251-272.
Analytics
Monthly downloads |
Added to index2009-01-28Total downloads32 ( #37,900 of 549,045 )Recent downloads (6 months)1 ( #63,185 of 549,045 )How can I increase my downloads? |
My notes
Discussion
