Necessary Knowledge
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Author(s): H. Plotkin
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780198568285
Format: hardback
348pp
Price: £24.95
Review Date: 04 June 2007
Review: It is claimed that some knowledge is innate in all animals that can learn. This is the so-called ‘necessary knowledge’ that we possess at birth. This leads to the question – what is the relationship between the knowledge that we each have and the evolution of our species or, to put it in another way, what is the relationship between evolution and the ability of any species of animal to learn? We are primed to learn about certain aspects of the world and ignore others. Here, Henry Plotkin expounds the theory that we enter the world with some innate knowledge about specific things – such as the configuration of the human face.