Customer Reviews

What's Within?: Nativism Reconsidered (Philosophy of Mind)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I didn't want to give this book a star rating because, as I explain below, I do not consider myself competent to review it. But the review system requires that I give it something and since I was not impressed with Cowie's writing, I gave it a 3-star rating. But feel free to ignore that. The real point of this review is what follows.

Potential buyers of Cowie's book should be aware that there are counterarguments to the position that she presents. Jerry Fodor has written one which is available on the web. Also, Stephen Laurence and Eric Margolis include a lengthy, detailed dismantling of Cowie's arguments in their paper entitled "The Poverty of the Stimulus Argument" which appeared in the British Journal of the Philosophy of Science 52 in 2001, pp 217-276. I am not competent to judge Cowie's book but anyone who is interested in it should be familiar with what Laurence and Margolis have to say.

This book is a godsend to anyone who's ever wondered just what all those wacky linguist people are talking about with their competency grammars and their language organs and all manner of other stuff. Cowie's arguments are clear, precise, and her research is so thorough that you never find yourself wondering "Wait, what's that theory again?" A Damn Fine book.

I picked up this book when I heard that the author was going to speak at a behaviorist convention and deliver the B.F.Skinner Lecture (or a similarly titled one). I initially read only the four or five pages of this book related to behaviorism. They were simply awful. (The author is not alone in writing stuff like this).

I did plod through the rest of this book. There were some minor delights as well as some minor annoyances. However, the book is a total failure for me, since nativism cannot be reconsidered properly without comapring it fairly with Skinnerian empiricism.