Educating Eve
Language Instinct Debate
Geoffrey Sampson(Author)
Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
Published on 1. April 1999
Book
Paperback/Softback
160 pages
978-0-304-70290-9 (ISBN)
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Description
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.
More details
Series
Edition
New edition
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
New edition
Illustrations
index
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 153 mm
Weight
300 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-304-70290-9 (9780304702909)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
New editions

Book
05/2005
Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd.
€79.00
Shipment within 15-20 days
Content
Culture or biology?; the original arguments for a language instinct; the debate renewed; language structure turns Queen's evidence; the creative mind.