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Innateness in cognitive science.

Richard Samuels1

  • 1Philosophy Department, King's College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, UK. richard.samuels@kcl.ac.uk

Trends in Cognitive Sciences
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Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Innateness, a key concept in cognitive science, remains confusing. This review explores approaches to defining innateness, suggesting cognitive science

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Philosophy of Mind
  • Developmental Psychology

Background:

  • Innateness is a foundational concept in cognitive science, yet it is poorly defined and widely debated.
  • Existing definitions of innateness often rely on commonsense notions or biological concepts like genetic determination, but these have proven insufficient.
  • This ambiguity hinders clear scientific progress and theoretical development within cognitive science.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To survey and critically evaluate recent attempts to define innateness in cognitive science.
  • To identify the most promising avenues for a scientifically robust understanding of innateness.
  • To propose a new framework for conceptualizing innateness drawing from cognitive science itself.

Main Methods:

  • Literature review of contemporary approaches to defining innateness.
  • Conceptual analysis of commonsense, biological, and cognitive science-based definitions.
  • Outline of a novel theoretical proposal for understanding innateness.

Main Results:

  • Commonsense and purely biological approaches to innateness have not yielded satisfactory definitions.
  • These traditional strategies fail to capture the complexity of innate traits within cognitive systems.
  • A more fruitful approach likely requires leveraging the conceptual tools of cognitive science.

Conclusions:

  • A robust definition of innateness requires a conceptual framework internal to cognitive science.
  • The proposed cognitive science-based approach offers a promising direction for future research.
  • Further systematic evaluation of the role and significance of innateness is essential for the field.