army1987 comments on Decision Theories: A Less Wrong Primer - Less Wrong

69 Post author: orthonormal 13 March 2012 11:31PM

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Comment author: orthonormal 16 March 2012 04:00:30PM *  1 point [-]

We've drifted way off topic. Brain plasticity is a good point, but it's not the only piece of evidence available. I promise you that if you check out How the Mind Works, you'll find unambiguous evidence that the human brain is not a general-purpose learner, but begins with plenty of structure.

If you doubt the existence of universal grammar, you should try The Language Instinct as well.

You can have the last word, but I'm tapping out on this particular topic.

Comment author: [deleted] 16 March 2012 10:03:53PM 1 point [-]

If you doubt the existence of universal grammar, you should try The Language Instinct as well.

While some linguistic universals definitely exist, and a sufficiently weak version of the language acquisition device idea is pretty much obvious (‘the human brain has the ability to learn human language’), I think Chomsky's ideas are way too strong. See e.g. Scholz, Barbara C. and Geoffrey K. Pullum (2006) Irrational nativist exuberance