The historical possibility and necessity of (Ilyenkov’s) anti-innatism

Abstract

An important aspect of Evald Ilyenkov’s theory of social mind is anti-innatism. Anti-innatism is not only the necessary logical outcome of Ilyenkov’s overall philosophical system and in particular of his anti-reductionism, but also it is a socio-historically possible and necessary consequence of the capitalist mode of production, which amounts to the formation of a gap between socially formed human knowledge and growth of the productive powers, on the one hand, and value-producing labour, on the other.