Educating Eve: The "Language Instinct" Debate (Open Linguistics) [Paperback]

Geoffrey Sampson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1999 | ISBN-10: 0304702900 | ISBN-13: 978-0304702909

Are we creatures who learn new things? Or does human mental development consist of awakening structures of thought? A view has gained ground - advocated, for example, by Steven Pinker's book "The Language Instinct" - that language in much of its detail is "hard-wired" in our genes. Others add that this holds too for much of the specific knowledge and understanding expressed in language. When the first human evolved from apes (it is claimed), her biological inheritance comprised not just a distinctive anatomy but a rich structure of cognition. This book examines the various arguments for instinctive knowledge, with the author arguing that each one rests on false premises or embodies a logical fallacy. A different picture of learning is suggested by Karl Popper's account of knowledge growing through "conjectures and refutations". The facts of human language are best explained, Sampson contends, by taking language acquisition to be a case of Popperian learning. In this way, we are not born know-alls; we are born knowing nothing but able to learn anything and this is why we can find ways to think and talk about a world that goes on changing.

Product Details

• Paperback: 160 pages
• Publisher: Cassell Academic (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0304702900
• ISBN-13: 978-0304702909
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,227,674 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 81 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sampson vs. the Philistines, January 7, 2000

By 

Doug Peters (Montreal, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Educating Eve: The "Language Instinct" Debate (Open Linguistics) (Paperback)

In "Educating Eve", Geoffrey Sampson rips into the Chomsky-Pinker camp of language theory in a manner somewhat reminiscent of a Philosophy sophomore's dismissal of Christianity. Are Sampson's points valid? Yes. Are they well-presented? Yes. Do they fairly represent his opposition? Well...not exactly (Sampson proves equal to Pinker in the wanton construction of strawmen). Do they provide any substantive alternative besides the less-than-impressive agnosticism? No, in spite of protests to the contrary.

At least that's the story for most of the book. Sensing, perhaps, that his agnostic position is insufficient to generate the reader enthusiasm for which he envies Pinker, Sampson goes out on a limb in his final chapter. In it, the word "incoherent" resonates. While his position here (with respect to human creative ability) is perfectly coherent, his arguments are not. By making clipped reference to all manner of personal and academic material, Sampson fails miserably to make his final point accessible. By the end, even this interested, patient, and sympathetic reader couldn't care less.

Valuable reading, taken with a grain of salt.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The other side of the coin, August 18, 2004

By 

T. Smith (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Educating Eve: The "Language Instinct" Debate (Open Linguistics) (Paperback)

I read Pinker's book but it left me uncomfortable with the number of assumptions he stacked, one upon the other, to support the nativist view of language.
Sampson's book was a refreshing "Occam's Razor" and I finished it feeling much more convinced of his side of the argument. It simply doesn't rely as much on assumptions and scientific leger de main.
If you've read The Language Instinct, you owe it to yourself to read Educating Even to see the other side.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent counter-attack, November 15, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Educating Eve: The "Language Instinct" Debate (Open Linguistics) (Paperback)

A good long diatribe that rips into linguistic nativism in general, and Pinker in particular. Sampson knows his subject well, but sometimes lets his violent distaste for the ideas he is attacking get the better of him, but his solid scholarship and breadth make this pretty impressive and convincing. It still lacks a serious rebuttal from nativists.