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The Vernacular Concept of Innateness

Griffiths, Paul E. and Machery, Edouard and Linquist, Stefan (2008) The Vernacular Concept of Innateness. [Preprint]

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Abstract

The proposal that the concept of innateness expresses a ‘folk biological’ theory of the ‘inner natures’ of organisms was tested by examining the response of biologically naive participants to a series of realistic scenarios concerning the development of birdsong. Our results explain the intuitive appeal of existing philosophical analyses of the innateness concept. They simultaneously explain why these analyses are subject to compelling counterexamples. We argue that this explanation undermines the appeal of these analyses, whether understood as analyses of the vernacular concept or as explications of that concept for the purposes of science.


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Item Type: Preprint
Creators:
CreatorsEmailORCID
Griffiths, Paul E.
Machery, Edouard
Linquist, Stefan
Keywords: Innateness human nature nativism folkbiology folk psychology
Subjects: General Issues > Thought Experiments
Specific Sciences > Psychology
Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science
Specific Sciences > Biology > Developmental Biology
Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology
Depositing User: Professor Paul Edmund Griffiths
Date Deposited: 22 Oct 2008
Last Modified: 07 Oct 2010 15:17
Item ID: 4245
Subjects: General Issues > Thought Experiments
Specific Sciences > Psychology
Specific Sciences > Cognitive Science
Specific Sciences > Biology > Developmental Biology
Specific Sciences > Psychology > Evolutionary Psychology
Date: October 2008
URI: https://philsci-archive.pitt.edu/id/eprint/4245

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