Developmental Constraints, Generative Entrenchment, and the Innate-Acquired Distinction

The innate-acquired distinction has long been a point of connection between evolutionary questions and developmental questions. It is also one of our oldest conceptual tools, dating back at least to the time of Plato. Further, it hs been broadly applied not just in development biology, animal ethology, and evolutionary theory, but also in epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, philosophy of science, cognitive psychology, linguistics, neurophysiology and in theories about the nature and evolution of human sociality, culture, and morality. As befits any concept which has cast such a broad and deep shadow, it has at some times and places been highly honored and at others most deeply dishonored. It has been viewed as an agent of progress and of stagnation, of clarity and of confusion, and of liberation and of bondage.