Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The new nativism: a commentary on Gary Marcus’s The birth of the mind

  • Published:
Biology and Philosophy Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Gary Marcus (2004) has written a very interesting book about mental development from a nativist perspective. For the general readership at which the book is largely aimed, it will be interesting because of its many informative examples of the development of cognitive structures and because of its illuminating explanations of ways in which genes can contribute to these developmental processes. However, the book is also interesting from a theoretical point of view. Marcus tries to make nativism compatible with the central arguments that anti-nativists use to attack nativism and with many recent discoveries about genetic activity and brain development. In so doing, he reconfigures the nativist position to a considerable extent. Marcus’s theory is certainly more sophisticated than any version of nativism on the market. However, in our view Marcus ends up reconfiguring the nativist position out of existence. While many of the points that Marcus makes are both interesting and correct, we see no compelling reason to classify his considered position with traditional nativism rather than anti-nativism. More generally, we that think his book points to a general moral: the opposition between nativism and anti-nativism does not help us to understand psycho-developmental issues, and should therefore be abandoned.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bateson P. (1991). Are there principles of behavioural development?. In: Bateson, P. (eds) The Development and Integration of Behaviour, pp. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson P. (2000). Taking the stink out of instinct. In: Rose, H. and Rose, S. (eds) Alas, Poor Darwin, pp. Capes, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson P. (2001). Behavioral development and Darwinian evolution. In: Oyama, S., Griffiths, P.E. and Gray, R.D. (eds) Cycles of Contingency: Developmental Systems and Evolution, pp. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Bateson P. (2004a). The active role of behaviour in evolution. Biol. Phil. 19: 283–298

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bateson P. (2004b). The origins of human differences. Daedalus (Fall) 2004: 36–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bateson P. and Martin P. (1999). Design for a Life. Cape, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Chomsky N. (1993). On the natureuseand acquisition of language. In: Goldman, A.I. (eds) Readings in Philosophy and Cognitive Science, pp. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Cowie F. (1999). What’s Within: Nativism Reconsidered. Oxford, Oxford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Damasio A. (1994). Descartes’ Errors: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain. Putnam, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ehrlich P.R. (2000). Human Natures. Island Press, Washington DC

    Google Scholar 

  • Elman J.L., Bates E.A., Johnson M.H., Karmiloff-Smith A., Parisi D. and Plunkett K. (1996). Rethinking Innateness. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Fodor J. (1981). The present status of the innateness controversy. In: Fodor, J. (eds) Re-Presentations: Philosophical Essays on the Foundations of Cognitive Science, pp. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Fodor J. (2001). Doing without what’s within. Mind 110: 99–148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert S.F. (2001). Ecological developmental biology: Developmental biology meets the real world. Dev. Biol. 233: 1–12

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert S.F. (2003a). The reactive genome. In: Muller, G.B. and Newman, S.A. (eds) Origination of Organismal Form: Beyond the Gene in Developmental and Evolutionary Biology, pp. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbert S.F. (2003b). Developmental Biology. Sinauer, Sunderland (MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Godfrey-Smith P. (1999). Genes and codes: lessons from the philosophy of mind? In V. In: (eds) Where Biology Meets Psychology, pp. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Godfrey-Smith P. (2000). On the theoretical role of “genetic coding”. Phil. Sci. 67: 26–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb G. (1992). Individual Development and Evolution. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb G. (1997). Synthesizing Nature-Nurture. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah (NJ)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gottlieb G. (2003). Behavioral development and evolution. In: Hall, B.K. and Olson, W.M. (eds) Evolutionary Developmental Biology, pp. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray R.D. (1992). Death of the gene: Developmental systems strike back. In: Griffiths, P.E. (eds) Trees of Life: Essays on the Philosophy of Biology, pp. Kluwer, Dordrecht

    Google Scholar 

  • Gray R.D. (2001). Selfish genes or developmental systems?. In: Singh, R., Krimbas, K., Paul, D.D. and Beatty, J. (eds) Thinking About Evolution, pp. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths P.E. (1997). What Emotions Really Are. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths P.E. (2001). Genetic information: a metaphor in search of a theory. Phil. Sci. 68: 394–412

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths P.E. (2002). What is innateness?. Monist 85: 70–85

    Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths P.E. (). The fearless vampire conservatory Philip Kitchergenetic determinism and the informational genes. In: Neumann-Held, E. and Rehmann-Sutter, C. (eds) Genes in Development: Rereading the Molecular Paradigm, pp. Duke University Press, Durham (NC)

  • Griffiths P.E. and Gray R.D. (1994). Developmental systems and evolutionary explanation. J. Phil. 91: 277–304

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths P.E. and Gray R.D. (1997). Replicator II: Judgement Day. Biol. Phil. 12: 471–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Griffiths P.E. and Gray R.D. (2001). Darwinism and developmental systems. In: Oyama, S., Griffiths, P.E. and Gray, R.D. (eds) Cycles of Contingency: Developmental Systems and Evolution, pp. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubel D.H. (1988). EyeBrain and Vision. Scientific American Library, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hubel D.H. and Wiesel T.N. (1962). Receptive fields, binocular and functional architecture in the cat’s visual cortex. J. Physiol. 160: 106–154

    Google Scholar 

  • Jablonka E. (2002). Information: its interpretation, its inheritanceand its sharing. Phil. Sci. 69: 578–605

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jacob F. and Monod J. (1961). On the regulation of gene activity. Cold Spring Harbor Symposium on Quantitative Biol. 26: 193–211

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson M.H. (1997). Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience. Oxford, Blackwell

    Google Scholar 

  • Khalidi M.A. (2002). Nature and nurture in cognition. Brit. J. Philos. Sci. 53: 251–272

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kitcher P. (2001). Battling the undead: How (and how not) to resist genetic determinism. In: Singh, R., Krimbas, K., Paul, D.D. and Beatty, J. (eds) Thinking about Evolution, pp. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Laland K.N., Richerson P.J. and Boyd R. (1996). Developing a theory of animal social learning. In: Heyes, C.M. (eds) Social Learning in Animals: The Roots of Culture, pp. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewontin R.C. (2000). The Triple Helix: GeneOrganism and Environment. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Mameli M. 2005. The inheritance of features. Biol. Philos.

  • Marcus G.F (2001). Plasticity and nativism: towards a resolution of an apparent paradox. In: Wermter, S., Austin, J. and Willshaw, D. (eds) Emergent Neural Computational Architectures Based on Neuroscience, pp. Springer-Verlag, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Marcus G.F. (2004). The Birth of the Mind: How a Tiny Number of genes creates the complexities of Human Thought. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Maynard Smith J. (2000). The concept of information in biology. Philos. Sci. 62: 177–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meaney M. (2003). Naturenurtureand the disunity of science. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 935: 50–61

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moore D.S. (2001). The Dependent Gene: The Fallacy of “Nature vs. Nurture”. Holt and Company, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • O’Leary D.D. and Stanfield B.B. (1989). Selective elimination of axons extended by developing cortical neurons is dependent on regional locale: experiments using fetal cortical transplants. J. Neurosci. 9: 2230–2246

    Google Scholar 

  • Oyama S. (2000a). The Ontogeny of Information. Duke University Press, Durham (NC)

    Google Scholar 

  • Oyama S. (2000b). Evolution’s Eye. Duke University Press, Durham (NC)

    Google Scholar 

  • (2001). Cycles of Contingency: Developmental Systems and Evolution. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinker S. (1998). How the Mind Works. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinker S. (2002). The Blank Slate. Viking Penguin, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Pinker S. (2004). Why nature and nurture won’t go away. Daedalus (Fall) 2004: 5–17

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quartz S.R. (1999). The constructivist brain. Trend. Cogn. Sci. 3: 48–57

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quartz S.R. and Sejnowski T.J. (1997). The neural basis of cognitive development: a constructivist manifesto. Behav. Brain Sci. 20: 537–596

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quartz S.R. and Sejnowski T.J. (2002). Liars, Lovers and Heroes. Morrow, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ridley M. (2002). Nature Via Nurture: Genes, Experience and What Makes us Human. Morrow, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Samuels R. (1998). What brains won’t tell us about the mind: A critique of the neurobiological argument against representational nativism. Mind Lang. 13: 548–570

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Samuels R. (2002). Nativism in cognitive science. Mind Lang. 17: 233–265

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Samuels R. (2004). Innateness in cognitive science. Trend. Cog. Sci. 8: 136–141

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stegmann U.E. (2004). The arbitrariness of the genetic code. Biol. Philos. 19: 205–222

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny K. (2000). The “genetic program” program: a commentary on Maynard Smith on information in biology. Philos. Sci. 67: 195–201

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny K. (2001). Niche construction, developmental systems and the extended replicator. In: Oyama, S., Griffiths, P.E., and Gray, R.D. (eds) Cycles of Contingency: Developmental Systems and evolution, pp. MIT Press, Cambridge (MA)

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny K. (2003). Thought in a Hostile World. Oxford, Blackwell

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny K. (2004). Symbiosis, evolvability and modularity. In: Schlosser, G. and Wagner, G. (eds) Modularity in Development and Evolution, pp. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterelny K., Smith K. and Dickison M. (1996). The extended replicator. Biol. Philos. 11: 377–403

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tooby J. and Cosmides L. (1992). The psychological foundations of culture. In: Barkow, J., Cosmides, L. and Tooby, J. (eds) The Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and the Generation of Culture, pp. Oxford University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Weele C. (1999). Images of Development: Environmental Causes in Ontogeny. Suny Press, Albany (NY)

    Google Scholar 

  • West-Eberhard M.J. (2003). Developmental Plasticity and Evolution. Oxford, Oxford University Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiesel T.N. and Hubel D.N. (1963). Single cell responses in striate cortex of very young, visually inexperienced kittens. J. Neurophysiol. 26: 1003–1017

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. King’s College, CB2 1ST, Cambridge, UK

    Matteo Mameli

  2. King’s College, WC2R 2LS, London, UK

    David Papineau

Authors
  1. Matteo Mameli
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. David Papineau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matteo Mameli.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Mameli, M., Papineau, D. The new nativism: a commentary on Gary Marcus’s The birth of the mind . Biol Philos 21, 559–573 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-005-1800-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10539-005-1800-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation