Abstract
Following the development of the selectionist theory of the immune system,
there was an attempt to characterize many biological mechanisms as being
"selectionist" as juxtaposed to "instructionist." But this broad definition
would group Darwinian evolution, the immune system, embryonic development, and
Chomsky's language-acquisition mechanism as all being "selectionist." Yet
Chomsky's mechanism (and embryonic development) are significantly different
from the selectionist mechanisms of biological evolution or the immune system.
Surprisingly, there is an abstract way using two dual mathematical logics to
make the distinction between genuinely selectionist mechanisms and what are
better called "generative" mechanisms. This note outlines that distinction.
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