According to Anna Wierzbicka and her colleagues, based upon Leibniz's philosophy, human mental language uses many concepts (almost more than 60) which are universal and innate. They call them 'semantic primes'. For example, they argue that concepts such as 'good and bad' or 'someone and something' are innate. What do you think? Are 'good and bad' innate semantic primes or they are learnt as an effect of socialisation?
I think that they are learnt as an effect of socialization.
Hmmh, I think it depends on what you understand under "good" and "bad". If you understand it in some moral sense, than of course its meaning is learned during socialization. On the other hand, even babies have the ability to express that they "like" or "dislike" something. This could be understood as expressing "good for my organism" or "bad for my organism". Of course, this could then be regarded as some innate semantic primes learned by evaluation.
Ashkan et al - Great question! My short answer is: Yes, etc. The long form is answered extensively in the Prologue & Definitions sections of my paper on "Riemann, Metatheory, and Proof: Riemann's hypothesis, metamathematics, solutions, and proofs" -- with substantial support in the sections on Logic & Metalogic, and Metamathematics. Thanks & good luck ~
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