The Innate Mind: Volume 2: Culture and Cognition

This is the second volume of a projected three-volume set on the subject of innateness. The volume is highly interdisciplinary, and addresses such question as: To what extent are mature cognitive capacities a reflection of particular cultures and to what extent are they a product of innate elements? How do innate elements interact with culture to achieve mature cognitive capacities? How do minds generate and shape cultures? How are cultures processed by minds? The volume will be of great importance to anyone interested in the interplay between culture and the innate mind. "If you are impressed by our species' cross-cultural variation, but mystified by how it emerges, then read this book. If you are unimpressed by our cross-cultural variation, but moved by our universality, then read this book. You will learn that of all the species that have existed on earth, we are truly bizarre, at once both clones of each other and yet remarkably different."--Marc Hauser, Harvard College Professor of Psychology and Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, and author of Wild Minds and Moral Minds. "Carruthers, Laurence, and Stich have done it again! The second book in their Innate Mind series is as much a must have as the first. Most of the big names in evolutionary psychology and cultural evolution are represented here, talking sensibly and informatively about how culture informs and shapes the innate mind, and vice versa. Both meta-level and object-level issues are dealt with. How should the relation between culture and the genetically shaped mind be conceived? Is the innate mind modular? How does our manifest and massive enculturation influence the evolution of our minds, and how dothe minds we have inherited from our hominid ancestors shape our mental, social, moral, and religious practices? This book is not a survey; it is a collection of cutting-edge research papers, which should stimulate professionals and students alike."--Fiona Cowie, author of What's Within "This is a fantastic volume. It beautifully answers the tired complaint that we need to get beyond the simple nature/nurture dichotomy. This collection of essays represents a striking advance in our understanding of both nativism and culture. It also provides the basis for a bright future in charting how innate and cultural components interact. Together with the other Innate Mind volumes assembled by this team, this volume represents a real landmark in the development of nativism."--Shaun Nichols, University of Arizona, and author of Sentimental Rules and co-author of Mindreading.