Nativism in cognitive science

Though nativist hypotheses have played a pivotal role in the development of cognitive science, it remains exceedingly obscure how they-and the debates in which they figure-ought to be understood. The central aim of this paper is to provide an account which addresses this concern and in so doing: a) makes sense of the roles that nativist theorizing plays in cognitive science and, moreover, b), explains why it really matters to the contemporary study of cognition. I conclude by outlining a range of further implications of this account for current debate in cognitive science.

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