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Chapter 3 - Innateness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2023

Muhammad Ali Khalidi
Affiliation:
City University of New York
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Summary

This chapter is about the category of innateness, which is a feature often associated with a range of cognitive phenomena, including concepts, cognitive capacities, behavioral dispositions, and mental states. Arguing against a number of recent critiques of the notion, this chapter tries to show that innateness can be identified with a cluster of properties that are causally interrelated in various ways and proposes a tentative causal model of the kind. In individuating innateness, it is important to distinguish proximal from distal causation. Some of the causal properties associated with innateness are involved in individuating innate cognitive capacities synchronically, while others are etiological in nature, responsible for making those capacities innate in the first place. This complex causal network is robust enough to warrant considering innateness to be a real kind as used in contemporary cognitive science.

Type
Chapter
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Cognitive Ontology
Taxonomic Practices in the Mind-Brain Sciences
, pp. 75 - 99
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Innateness
  • Muhammad Ali Khalidi, City University of New York
  • Book: Cognitive Ontology
  • Online publication: 15 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009223645.004
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  • Innateness
  • Muhammad Ali Khalidi, City University of New York
  • Book: Cognitive Ontology
  • Online publication: 15 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009223645.004
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Innateness
  • Muhammad Ali Khalidi, City University of New York
  • Book: Cognitive Ontology
  • Online publication: 15 January 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009223645.004
Available formats
×