Reflections on Piaget, Chomsky, Fodor, epigenetics and the Baldwin Effect

30.05.2017 18:15 – 19:45

Over 40 years have passed since the Royaumont debate between Jean Piaget and Noam Chomsky, with contributions there and then of many other illustrious scholars. I will attempt to summarize some of the still relevant issues from that debate (that I had the privilege of organizing), update them and then move to a critical presentation of some related open problems in psychology, in cognitive science and in biology. Notably epigenetics (a topic that has occupied a prominent role in Piaget’s work and that has bloomed in the last 15 years or so) and the so-called Baldwin effect. Contrary to what has been recently proposed, I will show that the Baldwin effect cannot be linked to Waddington’s canalization and to present-day epigenetics. There is no evidence of any instance of the Baldwin effect in biology proper, and its alleged explanatory power in the evolution of language and cognition vanishes. It’s interesting, though, that there is such a need for a mechanism like that in standard neo-Darwinian reconstructions of the evolution of language and cognition. During the debate, Guy Cellérier said that Piaget had a “gentleman’s disagreement with Darwin”. I and other biologists cringed at the time. Now I have developed myself a gentleman’s disagreement with Darwin and I owe posthumous excuses to Jean Piaget on this point.

Lieu

Bâtiment: Uni Mail

Salle R040

Organisé par

Archives Jean Piaget

Intervenant-e-s

Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini, Professor, Department of Linguistics, Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science Program, University of Arizona

entrée libre

Classement

Catégorie: Conférence

Plus d'infos

Contact: missing email