information around them; they actively filter it and use it to go well
beyond what is provided. Second, they do not acquire all information
in the same way.
To get a feel for the complexity of transmission, compare the ways
in which you acquired different bits of your cultural equipment. How
did you learn the syntax of your native tongue? It is a very complex
system, as any foreigner struggling with the rules will tell you. But the
learning process all happened unconsciously, or so it seems, and cer-
tainly without any effort, just by virtue of being around native speak-
ers. Compare with etiquette and politeness. These are different from
one culture to another and they have to be learned at some point. [41]
Again, this seems to be rather easily done, but there is a difference. In
this case you learned by being told what to do and not do and by
observing examples of people interacting. You were aware, to a certain
extent, that you were acquiring ways of behaving in order to have cer-
tain effects on other people. Now consider mathematics. In this case
you were certainly aware that you were learning something. You had
to put some effort into it. Understanding the truth of (a+b)^2 =
a^2 +2ab+b^2 does not come very easily. Most people never acquire this
kind of knowledge unless they are guided step by step by competent
adults. I could multiply the examples but the point is really simple.
There is no single way of acquiring the stuff that makes you a compe-
tent member of a culture.
There are different ways of acquiring cultural information because
a human brain has dispositions for learning and they are not the same
in all domains. For instance, acquiring the right syntax and pronuncia-
tion for a natural language is trivially easy for all normal brains at the
right age, between about one and six. The dispositions for social inter-
action develop at a different rhythm. But in all these domains learning
is possible because there is a disposition to learn, which means, a dis-
position to go beyond the information that is available. This is quite
clear in language. Children gradually build their syntax on the basis of
what they hear because their brains have definite biases about how
language works. But it is true also in many conceptual domains. Con-
sider our everyday knowledge of animals. Children learn that different
animal species reproduce in different ways. Cats deliver live kittens
and hens lay eggs. A child can learn that by observing actual animals
or by being given explicit information. But there are things you do not
have to tell children because they know them already. For example, it
is not necessary to tell them that if one hen lays eggs, then it is proba-
WHATISTHEORIGIN?