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The missing link between core knowledge and language: Review of Elizabeth Spelke's What babies know, volume 1 (2022)
Editors
Title / Series / Name
Mind & Language
Publication Volume
Publication Issue
Pages
Authors
Editors
Keywords
Agent concepts
Cognitive development
Core knowledge
Language of thought
Natural language
Cognitive development
Core knowledge
Language of thought
Natural language
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14018/14143
Abstract
Spelke's book defends two hypotheses about human cognition. First, humans and other species are endowed with core knowledge systems—innate computational structures that use abstract concepts to represent various aspects of the environment. Second, humans, and only humans, acquire natural languages, whose syntax and compositional semantics allow them to construct new concepts by combining the outputs of core systems. We endorse the first hypothesis but doubt that language acquisition alone explains the productivity of human cognition. In particular, we argue against the claim that infants use aspects of language to develop a new conception of other people.
Topic
Publisher
Place of Publication
Type
Journal article
Date
2023
Language
ISBN
Identifiers
doi.org/10.1111/mila.12482