PHIL 2504 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Innateness Hypothesis, Theory-Theory, Noam Chomsky
31 Mar 2018
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Gopnik: the theory theory vs chomsky"s innateness hypothesis. Roots of the debate: rationalism vs empiricism. The rationalists tend to view knowledge as something innate to the human mind; experience of the world does not give us knowledge. The empiricists tend to view knowledge as something gained with experience; knowledge of the world depend on experience of it. Chomsky developed a scientific account of how language develops in the human brain, in ways that draw on representations of the world. Recall chomsky"s emphasis on understanding the study of language along the same lines as other, more developed sciences. Language is another natural phenomenon fit for scientific inquiry, which is located in the brain and demands mentalistic terminology for understanding. Chomsky"s cognitive naturalism holds that knowledge can be understood through scientific investigation of the mind (239) This knowledge includes language, so that linguistics is rightly viewed as a science much like chemistry, but at an earlier stage of development.
