Subject: kant and innateness

references to innateness in kant are not easy to find , but here is one that is relevant to the current controversy regarding linguistic " realism " vs . " conceptualism . " a middle course may be proposed bewtween the two above mentioned , namely , that the categories are neither self-thought first principles apriori of our knowledege nor derived from experience , but sujective dispositions of thought , implanted in us from the first momement , so ordered by our creator that their employment is in complete harmony with the laws of nature in accordance with which experience proceeds - - a kind of preformation-system of pure reason . . . there is this decisive ojection . . . that the necessity of the categories . . . then would have to be sacrificed . ( b167-168 . _ critique of pure reason _ trans . kemp smith . ) noam chomsky observes that " rationalist " as well as " empiricist " theories of language incorporate " innate dispositions . " ( _ reflections on language _ . pantheon . 1975 . p . 215 ) whether the logical modalities enter the linguistic picture is uncertain , but one can imagine that on some formulation of minimality the connection with economy of derivation may be necessary in some sense , to choose a possible example just for the purpose of illustration . if so , then such modalities may not exclude " psychologism " in linguistics and with it conceptualism ala chomsky . one consequence would be that arguments against extending linguistic " psychologism " to logic would not be barred for the fregean reasons sometimes cited by linguists ( e . g . katz and postal in _ linguistics and philosophy _ . 14 , 1991 . p . 520 . the importance of kant for the history of the philosophy of linguistics is not innateness , rather it is in recognizing that concepts are rules . ( ibid . a106 ) . these rules allow the identification of the forms of " judgments . " within a framework of rules ( " principles " ) and parameters , kant 's view of concepts takes on special significance , eventually pointing toward a possible resolution of the question of the place of linguistics within science . steven bayne ( grad student ) uconn , linguistics stevenbayne @ delphi . com
