Humanities and Fine Arts 191HFA67 - FYS- Nature vs. Nurture

In 1959, Noam Chomsky wrote an article in response to the book "Verbal Behavior," by B.F. Skinner, that infamously ignited a debate regarding learning and human cognition within the field of Cognitive Science. In this seminar, we will take a deep dive into this debate and ask ourselves: is it nature? Or is it nurture? We will consider a wide array of perspectives from Philosophy, Computer Science, Linguistics, Neuroscience, and Psychology, as well as the experimental and theoretical results from each field that have shaped our current understanding of cognition.

Open to first-year Humanities and Fine Arts Exploratory Track students and first-year HFA Majors.