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The British Journal for the Philosophy of Science 2001 52(2):217-276; doi:10.1093/bjps/52.2.217
© 2001 by British Society for the Philosophy of Science
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The Poverty of the Stimulus Argument

Stephen Laurence1 and Eric Margolis2

1 Department of Philosophy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, UK. S.Laurence@sheffield.ac.uk 2 Department of Philosophy–MS 14, Rice University, PO Box 1892, Houston, TX 77251–1892, USA. Margolis@ruf.rice.edu

Noam Chomsky's Poverty of the Stimulus Argument is one of the most famous and controversial arguments in the study of language and the mind. Though widely endorsed by linguists, the argument has met with much resistance in philosophy. Unfortunately, philosophical critics have often failed to fully appreciate the power of the argument. In this paper, we provide a systematic presentation of the Poverty of the Stimulus Argument, clarifying its structure, content, and evidential base. We defend the argument against a variety of philosophical criticisms, new and old, and argue that the Poverty of the Stimulus Argument continues to deserve its guiding role in the study of language and the mind.


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