The Limits of the Core Knowledge Systems

Abstract

Since Locke and Hume, the empiricists who dominated scientific discourse until recently, regard knowledge as resulting entirely from experiences. While empiricism played a crucial rule in overcoming dogmatism, it caused a persistent misunderstanding about the foundation of knowledge and its evolution. No twenty-first-century cognitive scientist can still claim the type of extreme empiricism as did their behaviorist predecessors. Increasing evidence indicates that the human brain is endowed with innate knowledge and innate neural mechanisms that guide the learning process. Humans are born with innate knowledge about the spatial, physical, biological, and social worlds, constituting what psychologist Elizabeth Spelke calls the core knowledge systems (CKS).2 This chapter will discuss how CKS enabled and constrained premod-ern science, technology, and economy.