The Argument from Prepared Learning

Abstract

Abstract This chapter presents the sixth of our seven arguments for concept nativism—the argument from prepared learning. This argument was once a well-known argument for rationalist views of cognitive and conceptual development, but it has been neglected as a form of argument for rationalism in recent years. At the heart of the argument is the fact that learning often does not happen equally easily across different conceptual domains and that patterns in the relative ease or difficulty of learning across different conceptual domains can argue for the existence of rationalist learning mechanisms. As in the previous chapters in Part II, our discussion has a dual focus. It aims both to clarify the logic of the argument from prepared learning and to use this argument to continue building the case for our version of concept nativism. The main case studies discussed focus on representations of animals, danger, food, teleology, and emotion.