Educating Eve - Geoffrey Sampson

Educating Eve

Language Instinct Debate
Buch | Softcover
160 Seiten
1999 | New edition
Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. (Verlag)
978-0-304-70290-9 (ISBN)
24,90 inkl. MwSt
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Are we creatures who learn new things? Or does human mental devel opment consist of awakening structures of thought? This work examines the various arguments for instinctive knowledge and suggests a different picture of learning: that we are born knowing nothing, but able to learn anything.
Are we creatures who learn new things? Or does human mental development consist of awakening structures of thought? A view has gained ground - advocated, for example, by Steven Pinker's book "The Language Instinct" - that language in much of its detail is "hard-wired" in our genes. Others add that this holds too for much of the specific knowledge and understanding expressed in language. When the first human evolved from apes (it is claimed), her biological inheritance comprised not just a distinctive anatomy but a rich structure of cognition. This book examines the various arguments for instinctive knowledge, with the author arguing that each one rests on false premises or embodies a logical fallacy. A different picture of learning is suggested by Karl Popper's account of knowledge growing through "conjectures and refutations". The facts of human language are best explained, Sampson contends, by taking language acquisition to be a case of Popperian learning. In this way, we are not born know-alls; we are born knowing nothing but able to learn anything and this is why we can find ways to think and talk about a world that goes on changing.

Culture or biology?; the original arguments for a language instinct; the debate renewed; language structure turns Queen's evidence; the creative mind.

Erscheint lt. Verlag 1.4.1999
Reihe/Serie Open Linguistics S.
Zusatzinfo index
Verlagsort London
Sprache englisch
Maße 153 x 234 mm
Gewicht 300 g
Themenwelt Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Erkenntnistheorie / Wissenschaftstheorie
Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Sprachphilosophie
Geisteswissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie
Geisteswissenschaften Psychologie Verhaltenstherapie
ISBN-10 0-304-70290-0 / 0304702900
ISBN-13 978-0-304-70290-9 / 9780304702909
Zustand Neuware
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