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Inborn Knowledge: The Mystery Within

Online ISBN:
9780262334488
Print ISBN:
9780262029391
Publisher:
The MIT Press
Book

Inborn Knowledge: The Mystery Within

Published:
18 February 2016
Online ISBN:
9780262334488
Print ISBN:
9780262029391
Publisher:
The MIT Press

Abstract

This book 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. The book considers the particular case of sensible qualities—ideas of color, shape, taste, and so on. It argues that these are not well explained by the empiricist account that they derive from interactions with external objects. Rather, the book 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, the book 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. The book 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.

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