Open Peer Commentary Quartz & Sejnowski: Cognitive development
Constructivism, nativism, and explanatory adequacy
Derek Bickerton a1 a1 Department of Linguistics, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822
derek@hawaii.edu
Abstract
Constructivism is the most recent in a long line of failed
attempts to discredit nativism. It seeks support from true (but
irrelevant) facts, wastes its energy on straw men, and jumps
logical gaps; but its greatest weakness lies in its failure to match
nativism's explanation of a wide range of disparate phenomena,
particularly in language acquisition.
