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4 - The philosophical foundations of biolinguistics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2013

Cedric Boeckx
Affiliation:
The Catalan Institute for Advanced Studies
Kleanthes K. Grohmann
Affiliation:
University of Cyprus
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Summary

This chapter discusses the philosophical precedents and foundations for biolinguistics. It outlines scientific methods and research strategies for the study of mind that have yielded successful naturalistic scientific programs in the last few centuries, and indicated their philosophical origins and underpinnings. The chapter focuses on the origins of natural science methodology. Human cognitive capacities appear to fall into two general areas: commonsense understanding on the one hand and what Chomsky calls science formation on the other. The chapter describes the method of naturalistic scientific theory construction by outlining the desiderata for a naturalistic theory: what makes a theory a good one. The naturalistic science methodology applies to the subject matters of all naturalistic scientific research. The chapter explains the biolinguistic research program. It looks at the philosophical foundations for employing the tools of the science of biology in the study of language and other internal, modular, innate systems.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2013

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