Innate Ideas
Author: Stephen P. Stich
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 1975
Total Pages: 236
ISBN-13: 9780520029613
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Inborn Knowledge
Author: Colin McGinn
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2015-12-04
Total Pages: 148
ISBN-13: 0262029391
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn argument that nativism is true and important but mysterious, examining the particular case of ideas of sensible qualities. In this book, Colin McGinn presents a concise, clear, and compelling argument that the origins of knowledge are innate—that nativism, not empiricism, is correct in its theory of how concepts are acquired. McGinn considers the particular case of sensible qualities—ideas of color, shape, taste, and so on. He argues that these, which he once regarded as the strongest case for the empiricist position, are in fact not well explained by the empiricist account that they derive from interactions with external objects. Rather, he contends, ideas of sensible qualities offer the strongest case for the nativist position—that a large range of our knowledge is inborn, not acquired through the senses. Yet, McGinn cautions, how this can be is deeply problematic; we have no good theories about how innate knowledge is possible. Innate knowledge is a mystery, though a fact. McGinn describes the traditional debate between empiricism and nativism; offers an array of arguments against empiricism; constructs an argument in favor of nativism; and considers the philosophical consequences of adopting the nativist position, discussing perception, the mind–body problem, the unconscious, metaphysics, and epistemology.
Descartes on Innate Ideas
Author: Deborah A. Boyle
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Published: 2011-10-20
Total Pages: 277
ISBN-13: 1441100946
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe concept of innateness is central to Descartes' epistemology; the Meditations display a new, non-Aristotelian method of acquiring knowledge by attending properly to our innate ideas. Yet understanding Descartes's conception of innate ideas is not an easy task and some commentators have concluded that Descartes held several distinct and unrelated conceptions of innateness. In Descartes on Innate Ideas, however, Deborah Boyle argues that Descartes's remarks on innate ideas in fact form a unified account. Addressing the further question of how Descartes thinks innate ideas are known, the author shows that for Descartes, thinkers have implicit knowledge of their innate ideas. Thus she shows that the actual perception of these innate ideas is, for Descartes, a matter of making them explicit, turning the intellect away from sense-perceptions and towards pure thought. The author also provides a new interpretation of the Cartesian 'natural light', an important mental faculty in Descartes' epistemology.
Linguistic Relativity versus Innate Ideas
Author: Julia M. Penn
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Published: 2014-01-02
Total Pages: 64
ISBN-13: 3110818442
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA Companion to Cognitive Science
Author: William Bechtel
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
Published: 1999-09-10
Total Pages: 816
ISBN-13: 9780631218517
DOWNLOAD EBOOKUnmatched in the quality of its world-renowned contributors, this multidisciplinary companion serves as both a course text and a reference book across the broad spectrum of issues of concern to cognitive science.
Innate
Author: Kevin J. Mitchell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2020-03-31
Total Pages: 305
ISBN-13: 0691204152
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"What makes you the way you are--and what makes each of us different from everyone else? In Innate, leading neuroscientist and popular science blogger Kevin Mitchell traces human diversity and individual differences to their deepest level: in the wiring of our brains. Deftly guiding us through important new research, including his own groundbreaking work, he explains how variations in the way our brains develop before birth strongly influence our psychology and behavior throughout our lives, shaping our personality, intelligence, sexuality, and even the way we perceive the world. We all share a genetic program for making a human brain, and the program for making a brain like yours is specifically encoded in your DNA. But, as Mitchell explains, the way that program plays out is affected by random processes of development that manifest uniquely in each person, even identical twins. The key insight of Innate is that the combination of these developmental and genetic variations creates innate differences in how our brains are wired--differences that impact all aspects of our psychology--and this insight promises to transform the way we see the interplay of nature and nurture. Innate also explores the genetic and neural underpinnings of disorders such as autism, schizophrenia, and epilepsy, and how our understanding of these conditions is being revolutionized. In addition, the book examines the social and ethical implications of these ideas and of new technologies that may soon offer the means to predict or manipulate human traits. Compelling and original, Innate will change the way you think about why and how we are who we are."--Provided by the publisher.
Debating the a Priori
Author: Paul Boghossian
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2020
Total Pages: 274
ISBN-13: 0198851707
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhat kind of knowledge can we get just by thinking? Two of the world's leading philosophers develop radically different positions, in alternating chapters, on the status and nature of a priori knowledge. The reader is able to follow up-close how a philosophical debate evolves.
The Cambridge Companion to Locke's 'Essay Concerning Human Understanding'
Author: Lex Newman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2007-03-05
Total Pages: 18
ISBN-13: 1139827235
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFirst published in 1689, John Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding is widely recognised as among the greatest works in the history of Western philosophy. The Essay puts forward a systematic empiricist theory of mind, detailing how all ideas and knowledge arise from sense experience. Locke was trained in mechanical philosophy and he crafted his account to be consistent with the best natural science of his day. The Essay was highly influential and its rendering of empiricism would become the standard for subsequent theorists. This Companion volume includes fifteen new essays from leading scholars. Covering the major themes of Locke's work, they explain his views while situating the ideas in the historical context of Locke's day and often clarifying their relationship to ongoing work in philosophy. Pitched to advanced undergraduates and graduate students, it is ideal for use in courses on early modern philosophy, British empiricism and John Locke.
Locke and Cartesian Philosophy
Author: Philippe Hamou
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2018-06-13
Total Pages: 236
ISBN-13: 0192546643
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThis volume presents twelve original essays, by an international team of scholars, on the relation of John Locke's thought to Descartes and to Cartesian philosophers such as Malebranche, Clauberg, and the Port-Royal authors. The essays, preceded by a substantial introduction, cover a large variety of topics from natural philosophy to religion, philosophy of mind and body, metaphysics and epistemology. The volume shows that in Locke's complex relationship to Descartes and Cartesianism, stark opposition and subtle 'family resemblances' are tightly intertwined. Since the turn of the twentieth century, the theory of knowledge has been the main comparative focus. According to an influential historiographical conception, Descartes and Locke form together the spearhead in the 'epistemological turn' of early modern philosophy. In bringing together the contributions to this volume, the editors advocate for a shift of emphasis. A full comparison of Locke's and Descartes's positions should cover not only their theories of knowledge, but also their views on natural philosophy, metaphysics, and religion. Their conflicting claims on issues such as cosmic organization, the qualities and nature of bodies, the substance of the soul, and God's government of the world, are of interest not only in their own right, to take the full measure of Locke's complex relation to Descartes, but also as they allow a better understanding of the continuing epistemological debate between the philosophical heirs of these thinkers.
Idea and Ontology
Author: Marc A. Hight
Publisher: Penn State Press
Published: 2010-11
Total Pages: 294
ISBN-13: 0271047658
DOWNLOAD EBOOK"A wide-ranging study of the 'way of ideas' and its metaphysics, culminating in a bold reinterpretation of Berkeley."
