[steven_noble]

"The Language Instinct", by language psychologist Steven Pinker, gave me a new way of thinking about the old nature/nurture issue.

The easy solution has always been to say "Nature? Nurture? It's a bit of both". But really, that invites the response: "Both nature and nurture? Sure. Of course. But both of them in what way?"

In the case of language it's really interesting. It seems that biologically, we are very very strongly primed to learn language ("nature"). And to learn it in certain ways and at certain life stages.

But of course, at the same, the language or languages that we learn are incredibly diverse, and these differences do not map in any way to the physical differences between our bodies ("nurture").

So, in the case of human language, that's "the how" for how nature and nurture come together. Maybe it applies to other areas too where the nature/nurture debate still rages.