Innateness and Cognition

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 psychology. This book is a much-needed overview of this important problem.

M. J. Cain is Reader in Philosophy at Oxford Brookes University, UK.

Introduction 1. The Nature of Innateness 2. Defending the Concept of Innateness 3. Concepts 4. Modules, Core Cognition and Culture 5. The Theory Theory and the Theory of Mind 6. Mathematical Cognition and Quinian Bootstrapping 7. Language Acquisition and Linguistic Nativism 8. The Challenge to Linguistic Nativism 9. Morality and Innateness 10. Moral Convictions and Mechanisms 11. Conclusion. References Index