 The doctrine that some concepts are innate was a focal point in the clash between rationalism versus empiricism. Rationalists defended the innateness of certain fundamental ideas, such as god and cause, while empiricists held that all ideas derive from sensory experience. A major theme in the 1960s cognitive science revolution was revival of a nativist picture, inspired by the rationalists, on which many key elements of cognition are innate. Most famously, Chomsky (1965) explained language acquisition by positing innate knowledge about possible human languages. Fodor’s innateness thesis was widely perceived as going way beyond all precedent, verging on the preposterous (P.S. Churchland 1986; Putnam 1988). How could we have an innate ability to represent all the denotations we mentally represent? For example, how could we innately possess a Mentalese word carburetor that represents carburetors?