 In support of the suggestion that the concept of innateness has been scientifically productive, Cowie relies on examples from cognitive science such as that of Chomsky and his followers on language acquisition. Although one cannot deny that this concept has been productive, it is a further question whether certain sciences would have advanced more rapidly if they had not framed their hypotheses in terms of the innate/acquired distinction. Another lesson to be drawn from the history of psychology is that the sheer volume of research papers on a subject is not always a good indication of a healthy discipline. The study of instinct was a productive cottage industry at the beginning of the 20th century (see Section 1.2). Little of this work is cited today, except as an historical example of a failed research program. More recently, the discipline of Evolutionary Psychology has revived a similar approach to nativism as the early instinct theorists (Hampton 2004). It is controversial whether this program qualifies as an advance in our understanding of the human mind (Buller 2006; Laland and Brown 2002). Ultimately, it is an empirical question whether adherence to an innate/acquired distinction is conducive to scientific progress. It is notoriously difficult to say whether a given research program is on the whole more or less productive than some rival (Laudan 1977). Yet this is an area where, we think, careful historical and philosophical analysis would pay valuable dividends.