Editing Innatism (section)

== Difference from nativism ==
{{main|Psychological nativism}}
''Innatism'' and ''nativism'' are generally synonymous terms referring to the notion of preexisting ideas in the mind. However, more specifically, innatism refers to the philosophy of [[Descartes]], who assumed that God or a similar being or process placed innate ideas and principles in the human mind.<ref name=":Schmaltz">Tad M. Schmaltz, ''Radical Cartesianism: The French Reception of Descartes'', Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 257.</ref> The innatist principles in this regard may overlap with similar concepts such as [[Natural order (philosophy)|natural order]] and [[state of nature]], in philosophy. {{citation needed|date=August 2012}}

Nativism represents an adaptation of this, grounded in the fields of [[genetics]], [[cognitive psychology]], and [[psycholinguistics]]. Nativists hold that innate beliefs are in some way genetically programmed in our mind&mdash;they are the [[phenotypes]] of certain [[genotypes]] that all humans share in common. Nativism is a modern view rooted in innatism. The advocates of nativism are mainly philosophers who also work in the field of [[cognitive psychology]] or [[psycholinguistics]]: most notably [[Noam Chomsky]] and [[Jerry Fodor]] (although the latter adopted a more critical attitude toward nativism in his later writings).{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} The nativist's general objection against [[empiricism]] is still the same as was raised by the [[Rationalism|rationalists]]; the human mind of a newborn child is not a ''[[tabula rasa]]'' but is equipped with an inborn structure.