Innateness and Language3

In Part 5 of the Discourse on the Method, for instance, Descartes identifies the ability to use language as one of two features distinguishing people from “machines” or “beasts” and speculates that even the stupidest people can learn a language (when not even the smartest beast can do so) because human beings have a “rational soul” and beasts “have no intelligence at all.” (Descartes 1984: 140-1.) Like other great philosopher-psychologists of the past, Descartes seems to have regarded our acquisition of concepts and knowledge (‘ideas’) as the main psychological mystery, taking language acquisition to be a relatively trivial matter in comparison; as he puts it, albeit ironically, “it patently requires very little reason to be able to speak.” (1984: 140.)

資料來源:http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/innateness-language/

在第五小節方法的論述,舉例來說,笛卡兒將使用語言的能力看成一個人俱有二個特徵,這個特徵區分了人和「機器」、「野獸」,他更推測,即使最笨的人也可以學習一個語言(而最聰明的野獸不能)因為人類有「理性心靈」但野獸「不具有這類優秀能力」。(Descrates 1984: 140-1) 就像過去的心理哲學家,笛卡兒認為我們的概念與知識(理型)之所以被習得,是因為某種特殊的心理學現象,語言的習得能力就像瑣碎事務;像他所說的,諷刺的是,「說話毫無疑問是不需要任何理由的」。(1984:140)