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Domain specificity is a theoretical position in cognitive science (especially modern cognitive development) that argues that many aspects of cognition are supported by specialized, presumably evolutionarily specified, learning devices. [1]
Modern nativism is most associated with the work of Jerry Fodor (1935–2017), Noam Chomsky (b. 1928), and Steven Pinker (b. 1954), who argue that humans from birth have certain cognitive modules (specialised genetically inherited psychological abilities) that allow them to learn and acquire certain skills, such as language.
An early supporter was Jerry Fodor, who argued that the mind functions partly, by innate, domain-specific mental modules. [3] In Modularity of Mind, Fodor proposed the Hypothesis of Modest Modularity, stating that input systems such as perception and language are modular, whereas central systems such as belief fixation and practical reasoning ...
Jerry Fodor was born in New York City on April 22, 1935, [2] and was of Jewish descent. He received his degree ( summa cum laude ) from Columbia University in 1956, where he wrote a senior thesis on Søren Kierkegaard [ 3 ] and studied with Sidney Morgenbesser , and a PhD in philosophy from Princeton University in 1960, under the direction of ...
Nativism is a modern view rooted in innatism. The advocates of nativism are mainly philosophers who also work in the field of cognitive psychology or psycholinguistics : most notably Noam Chomsky and Jerry Fodor (although the latter adopted a more critical attitude toward nativism in his later writings).
Jerry Fodor himself argues that the mind is still a very long way from having been explained by the computational theory of mind. The main reason for this shortcoming is that most cognition is abductive and global, hence sensitive to all possibly relevant background beliefs to (dis)confirm a belief.
To clarify how this argument is supposed to work: Imagine that there is brain in a vat, and a whole world is being simulated for it. Call the individual who is being deceived "Steve." When Steve is given an experience of walking through a park, semantic externalism allows for his thought, "I am walking through a park" to be true so long as the ...
Jerry Fodor argues that non-basic (or "special") sciences do not in fact require strict laws . In current practice, special sciences (for example, biology and chemistry) have ceteris paribus laws (or laws with "all else being equal" clauses), according to which there are exceptions. However, only in the basic sciences (physics) are there strict ...