Meeting 17-Apr-2019: Kleanthes Grohmann (UCY)

Join us for the last (scheduled) talk of the semester next week, April 17th, in room A110 (Kallipoleos 75). Kleanthes K. Grohmann will give an invited talk on `Knowledge of Language: Innateness, Modularity and the Mind/Brain’ as part of the Demonactian Lectures of Philosophy 2018-19. The abstract of his talk can be found below.

Abstract

When linguists talk about the language faculty, they often employ metaphors such as language as a ‘mental organ’. What this means is that the human capacity for language is something deeply engrained in our species, namely as part of our physical organism (possibly hardwired in the brain). At the same time, it denotes something less physical (the more ethereal mind). In this talk I will return to the various arguments that have been brought to the innateness of knowledge of language vis-à-vis a language faculty, that is, a module dedicated to language alongside other modules within the larger cognitive system. I expect to raise more questions than provide answers, and these questions range from biology (genetics, evolution) and neuroscience (cognitive computations) to the philosophy of mind and beyond (such as other innate systems).


Written by CAT in News on Wed 17 April 2019. Tags: Meetings


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