Nativism

NATIVISM, the doctrine that the perception of space is innate. This doctrine, developed by Stumpf, Hering, and James, is closely related to the reactionary-idealist views of Kant, Mach, Pearson, and others, who claimed that space is not inherent in objective reality, but rather constitutes a subjective, a priori category by means of which the subject 'organizes the perceived chaos of the external world.' The so-called empiricist or genetic theory (Bain, Helmholtz, Wundt), developed in opposition to nativism, demonstrates that space perception arises on the basis of experience through the combination of visual sensations with sensations of movement and touch. However, even this theory appears materialistic only upon a superficial approach, since in reality it idealistically understands experience as a 'totality of sensations' (it is no coincidence that its progenitor is considered to be the classic of subjective idealism, Bishop Berkeley). A consistently materialist overcoming of nativism must proceed from the fact that 'if sensations of space and time can provide man with a biologically expedient orientation, it is exclusively under the condition that these sensations reflect objective reality: man could not biologically adapt to the environment if his sensations did not give him an objectively correct representation of it' (Lenin). These reflections of objective reality arise on the basis of practical activity. Individuals born blind make gross errors in evaluating space by means of vision shortly after an operation, and only by putting touch into play do they correct the visual perception of space and give impetus to the further development of this perception. Such primitive practice is a special case of that diverse, ultimately productive activity on the basis of which concrete-historical social man develops and enriches his conceptions of the objective world and, in particular, of its spatial properties. The human structure of sense organs and the nervous system, characteristic of man, is one of the obligatory prerequisites of the indicated process; however, even this biological prerequisite is ultimately an expression of a number of properties of objective reality under the conditions of which the development of human psychophysiology takes place.