M. J. Cain Innateness and Cognition

Annotation

The question of innateness, or nativism, is one of the most heated problems in philosophy, reaching as far back as Plato but generating fierce debates in contemporary philosophy and cognitive science. Which aspects of the human mind are innate and which are the products of experience? Do we have any innate concepts or knowledge or are all the contents of the mind acquired by means of learning?Innateness and Cognition is a much-needed overview of this important problem. Through addressing the following topics M.J. Cain argues for a nativist perspective which, nevertheless, finds an important role for culture and social learning in cognitive development:the nature of innatenessthe coherence and explanatory value of the concept of innatenessthe acquisition of concepts and the role of learning in conceptual developmentdomain specific knowledge, including the 'massive modularity' thesis and the theory of core knowledge domainscognitive development relating the theory of mind and mathematicsthe relationship between biological and cultural evolution and their respective roles in cognitive developmentlanguage and innateness, particularly Chomsky's linguistic nativism and challenges to thismorality, moral judgment, and innateness.Innateness and Cognition is an excellent resource for those researching and studying philosophy of psychology and philosophy of mind, as well as those interested in foundational issues in cognitive science, psychology, linguistics, and anthropology.