- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: OUP USA (27 Mar 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0195159780
- ISBN-13: 978-0195159783
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15.2 x 2 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 771,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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What's Within? is one of the best recent books urging the resurgence of empiricism and should be given the kind of attention it deserves (Australasian Journal of Philosophy )
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Product Description
This powerfully 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. Also in contrast to empiricists, who view the mind as simply another natural phenomenon susceptible of scientific explanation, nativists suspect that the mental is inelectably mysterious. Cowie addresses this second strand in nativist thought, taking on the view articulated by Jerry Fodor and other nativists that learning, particularly concept acquisition, is a fundamentally inexplicable process. Cowie challenges this explanatory pessimism, and argues convincingly that concept acquisition is psychologically explicable. What's Within? is a clear and provocative achievement in the study of the human mind.
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First Sentence
The doctrine of innate ideas really is as old as philosophy itself. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
The doctrine of innate ideas really is as old as philosophy itself. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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3 reviews
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Not the whole story
28 Aug 2003
Format:Paperback
I didn't want to give this book a star rating because, as I explain below, I do not consider myself competent to review it. But the review system requires that I give it something and since I was not impressed with Cowie's writing, I gave it a 3-star rating. But feel free to ignore that. The real point of this review is what follows.
Potential buyers of Cowie's book should be aware that there are counterarguments to the position that she presents. Jerry Fodor has written one which is available on the web. Also, Stephen Laurence and Eric Margolis include a lengthy, detailed dismantling of Cowie's arguments in their paper entitled "The Poverty of the Stimulus Argument" which appeared in the British Journal of the Philosophy of Science 52 in 2001, pp 217-276. I am not competent to judge Cowie's book but anyone who is interested in it should be familiar with what Laurence and Margolis have to say.
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Wonderful.
26 May 2000
Format:Hardcover
This book is a godsend to anyone who's ever wondered just what all those wacky linguist people are talking about with their competency grammars and their language organs and all manner of other stuff. Cowie's arguments are clear, precise, and her research is so thorough that you never find yourself wondering "Wait, what's that theory again?" A Damn Fine book.
0 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Quite Disappointing
14 Mar 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I picked up this book when I heard that the author was going to speak at a behaviorist convention and deliver the B.F.Skinner Lecture (or a similarly titled one). I initially read only the four or five pages of this book related to behaviorism. They were simply awful. (The author is not alone in writing stuff like this).
I did plod through the rest of this book. There were some minor delights as well as some minor annoyances. However, the book is a total failure for me, since nativism cannot be reconsidered properly without comapring it fairly with Skinnerian empiricism.
I did plod through the rest of this book. There were some minor delights as well as some minor annoyances. However, the book is a total failure for me, since nativism cannot be reconsidered properly without comapring it fairly with Skinnerian empiricism.
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