Publications

Books

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (2024). The Building Blocks of Thought: A Rationalist Account of the Origins of Concepts. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

[This book is Open Access — anyone can download a free PDF of the book from the publisher's webpages HERE or HERE]

Edited Books

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2015). The Conceptual Mind: New Directions in the Study of Concepts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2007). Creations of the Mind: Theories of Artifacts and Their Representation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Peter Carruthers, Stephen Laurence, and Stephen Stich (2007). The Innate Mind: Foundations and the Future. New York: Oxford University Press.

Peter Carruthers, Stephen Laurence, and Stephen Stich (2006). The Innate Mind: Culture and Cognition. New York: Oxford University Press.

Peter Carruthers, Stephen Laurence, and Stephen Stich (2005). The Innate Mind: Structure and Content. New York: Oxford University Press.

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (1999). Concepts: Core Readings. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Stephen Laurence & Cynthia Macdonald (1998). Contemporary Readings in the Foundations of Metaphysics. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1998.

Articles

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2023). Making sense of domain specificity. Cognition, 240, 105583.

H.Clark Barrett, Alexander Bolyanatz, Tanya Broesch, Emma Cohen, Peggy Froerer, Martin Kanovsky, Mariah G. Schug, and Stephen Laurence (2021). Intuitive dualism and afterlife beliefs: A cross-cultural study. Cognitive Science, 45(6), e12992.

Cameron M. Curtin, H.Clark Barrett, Alexander Bolyanatz, Alyssa Crittenden, Daniel Fessler, Simon Fitzpatrick, Michael Gurven, Martin Kanovsky, Geoff Kushnick, Stephen Laurence, Anne Pisor, Brooke Scelza, Stephen Stich, Chris von Rueden, and Joseph Henrich (2020). Kinship intensity and the use of mental states in moral judgment across societies. Evolution and Human Behavior, 41, 415–429.

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2019). Concepts. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (first published 2005; substantive revision 2011; substantive revision 2019).

H.Clark Barrett, Alexander Bolyanatz, Alyssa Crittenden, Daniel Fessler, Simon Fitzpatrick, Michael Gurven, Joseph Henrich, Martin Kanovsky, Geoffrey Kushnick, Anne Pisor, Brooke Scelza, Stephen Stich, Chris von Reudon, Wanying Zhao, and Stephen Laurence (2016) Small-scale societies exhibit fundamental variation in the role of intentions in moral judgment. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113 (17) 4688-4693. [Supplementary Information, pp. 1-71]. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1522070113

Daniel M. T. Fessler , Colin Holbrook, Martin Kanovsky, H. Clark Barrett, Alexander H. Bolyanatz, Mathew M. Gervais, Michael Gurven, Joseph Henrich, Geoff Kushnick, Anne C. Pisor, Stephen Stich, Christopher von Rueden, and Stephen Laurence (2016). Moral parochialism misunderstood: A reply to Piazza and Sousa. Proceedings of the Royal Society; B (Biological Sciences), 283, 2015262. [Electronic Supplementary Materials (pp. 1-9)]. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.2628

Daniel M. T. Fessler , H. Clark Barrett, Martin Kanovsky, Stephen Stich, Colin Holbrook, Joseph Henrich, Alexander H. Bolyanatz, Mathew M. Gervais, Michael Gurven, Geoff Kushnick, Anne C. Pisor, Christopher von Rueden, and Stephen Laurence (2015). Moral parochialism and contextual contingency across seven societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society; B (Biological Sciences), 282, 20150907. [Electronic Supplementary Materials (pp. 1-65)]. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2015.0907

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (2015). Concept nativism and neural plasticity. In E. Margolis & S. Laurence (eds.) The Conceptual Mind: New Directions in the Study of Concepts, pp. 117-147. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2013). In defense of nativism. Philosophical Studies, 165.2, pp. 693-718. DOI: 10.1007/s11098-012-9972-x

Bailey R. House , Joan B. Silk, Joseph Henrich, H. Clark Barrett,Brooke A. Scelza, Adam H. Boyette, Barry S. Hewlett, Richard McElreath, and Stephen Laurence (2013). Ontogeny of prosocial behavior across diverse societies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 110.36, pp. 14586-14591. [with Supplementary Information (pp. 1-32)]. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1221217110

H. Clark Barrett, Tanya Broesch, Rose M. Scott, Zijing He, Renée Baillargeon, Di Wu, Matthias Bolz, Joseph Henrich, Peipei Setoh, Jianxin Wang, and Stephen Laurence (2013). Early false-belief understanding in traditional non-Western societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society, B (Biological Sciences), vol 280, no. 1755. [with Electronic Supplementary Materials (pp. 1-29)]. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2012.2654

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (2012). Abstraction and the origin of general ideas. Philosophers' Imprint, 12.19, pp. 1-22.

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (2012). The scope of the conceptual. In E. Margolis, R. Samuels, & S. Stich (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy and Cognitive Science, pp. 291-317. Oxford University Press.

H. Clark Barrett, Stephen Stich, and Stephen Laurence (2012). Should the study of Homo sapiens be part of cognitive science? Topics in Cognitive Science, 4, pp. 379-386. DOI: 10.1111/j.1756-8765.2012.01194.x

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2011). Learning matters: The role of learning in concept acquisition. Mind & Language, 26.5, pp. 507-39. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0017.2011.01429.x

H. Clark Barrett, Stephen Laurence, and Eric Margolis (2008). Artifacts and original intentions: A cross-cultural perspective on the design stance. Journal of Cognition and Culture, 8, pp. 1-22. DOI: 10.1163/156770908X289189

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2008). How to learn the natural numbers: Inductive inference and the acquisition of number concepts. Cognition, 106.2, pp. 924-39. DOI:10.1016/j.cognition.2007.03.003

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (2007). Linguistic determinism and the innate basis of number. In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, & S. Stich (eds.) The Innate Mind: Foundations and the Future, pp. 139-169. Oxford University Press.

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2007). The ontology concepts — abstract objects or mental representations? Noûs, vol. 41.4, pp. 561-93. DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0068.2007.00663.x

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (2005). Number and natural language. In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, & S. Stich (eds.) The Innate Mind: Structure and Content, pp. 216-35. Oxford University Press.

Stephen Laurence (2003). Is linguistics a branch of psychology? In A. Barber (ed.) Epistemology of Language, pp. 69-106. Oxford University Press.

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (2003). Concepts and conceptual analysis. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, vol. 67.2, pp. 253 - 282. DOI: 10.1111/j.1933-1592.2003.tb00290.x

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2003). Should we trust our intuitions?: Deflationary accounts of the analytic data. Proceedings of the Aristotelian Society, vol. 103.3, pp. 299-323. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0066-7372.2003.00074.x

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2003). Concepts. In S. Stich & T. Warfield (eds.) The Blackwell Guide to Philosophy of Mind, pp. 190-213. Blackwell Publishers.

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (2002). Radical concept nativism. Cognition, 86.1, pp. 22-55. DOI:10.1016/S0010-0277(02)00127-0

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2002). Lewis's strawman. Philosophical Quarterly, vol. 52.206, pp. 22-55. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9213.00252

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2001). Boghossian on analyticity. Analysis, vol. 61.4, pp. 293-302. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8284.00308

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (2001).The poverty of the stimulus argument. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, vol. 52, pp. 217-276. DOI: 10.1093/bjps/52.2.217

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (1999). Where the regress argument still goes wrong: Reply to Knowles. Analysis, vol. 59.4, pp. 321-7. DOI: 10.1111/1467-8284.00187

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (1999). Concepts and cognitive science. In E. Margolis & S. Laurence (eds.) Concepts: Core Readings, pp. 3-81. Bradford Books/MIT Press.

Stephen Laurence, Eric Margolis, and Angus Dawson (1999). Moral realism and Twin Earth. Facta Philosophica, vol. 1.1, pp. 135-65.

Stephen Laurence (1998). Convention-based semantics and the development of language. In P. Carruthers & J. Boucher, (eds.) Language and Thought: Interdisciplinary Themes, pp. 201-17. Cambridge University Press.

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (1998). Multiple meanings and the stability of content. Journal of Philosophy, vol. 95.5, pp. 255-63. DOI: 10.2307/2564690

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (1997). Regress arguments against the language of thought. Analysis, vol. 57.1, pp. 60-6.

Stephen Laurence (1996). A Chomskian alternative to convention based semantics. Mind, vol. 105, pp. 269-301.

Stephen Stich & Stephen Laurence (1994). Intentionality and naturalism. In P. French, T. Uehling, & H. Wettstein, (eds.) Midwest Studies in Philosophy, v 19: Naturalism, pp. 159-82. Notre Dame University Press. DOI: 10.1111/j.1475-4975.1994.tb00284.x

Reviews & Shorter Pieces

Eric Margolis, and Stephen Laurence (2024). Concepts, core knowledge, and the rationalism-empiricism debate. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 47, 53-55.

Stephen Laurence, and Eric Margolis (2016). Nativism, empiricism, and the interactionist consensus. IEEE CIS Cognitive and Developmental Systems Newsletter, 13.1, 9-10.

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2011). Beyond the Building Blocks Model (Commentary on Carey, Précis of The Origin of Concepts). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 34.3, pp. 139-140. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X10002177

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2010). Concepts and Theoretical Unification (Commentary on Machery, Précis of Doing without Concepts). Behavioral and Brain Sciences, vol. 33.2-3, pp. 219-20. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X10000427

Peter Carruthers, Stephen Laurence & Stephen Stich (2007). Introduction. In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, & S. Stich (eds.) The Innate Mind: Foundations and the Future, pp. 3-14. Oxford University Press.

Tom Simpson, Stephen Stich, Peter Carruthers, & Stephen Laurence (2006). Introduction: Culture and the Innate Mind. In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, & S. Stich (eds.) The Innate Mind: Culture and Cognition, pp. 3-19. Oxford University Press, 2006.

Tom Simpson, Peter Carruthers, Stephen Laurence & Stephen Stich (2005). Introduction: Nativism Past & Present. In P. Carruthers, S. Laurence, & S. Stich (eds.) The Innate Mind: Structure and Content, pp. 3-19. Oxford University Press.

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (2005). Innate Ideas. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd ed., volume 2 Elsevier, pp. 689-91.

Eric Margolis & Stephen Laurence (2005). Concepts. The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 2nd ed., volume 2 Elsevier, pp. 817-19.

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (2001). Review of Fiona Cowie's What's Within? Nativism Reconsidered. European Journal of Philosophy, vol. 9.2, pp. 242-7.

Stephen Laurence & Eric Margolis (1999). Review of Jerry Fodor's Concepts: Where Cognitive Science Went Wrong. British Journal for the Philosophy of Science, vol. 50, pp. 487-91.

Stephen Laurence & Cynthia Macdonald (1998). Introduction: Metaphysics and Ontology. In S. Laurence and C. Macdonald (eds.) Contemporary Readings in the Foundations of Metaphysics, pp. 1-7. Blackwell Publishers.

Laurence & Margolis, The Building Blocks of Thought: A Rationalist Account of the Origins of Concepts (OUP 2024).

Margolis & Laurence (eds) The Conceptual Mind: New Directions in the Study of Concepts (MIT 2015)

Margolis & Laurence (eds) Creations of the Mind: Theories of Artifacts and Their Representation (OUP 2007)

Carruthers, Laurence, & Stich (eds) The Innate Mind, volume 3 (OUP 2007)

Carruthers, Laurence, & Stich (eds) The Innate Mind, volume 2 (OUP 2006)

Carruthers, Laurence, & Stich (eds) The Innate Mind, volume 1 (OUP 2005)

Margolis & Laurence (eds) Concepts: Core Readings (MIT Press, 1999)

Laurence & Macdonald (eds) Contemporary Readings in the Foundations of Metaphysics (Blackwell 1998)