This paper intends to present and critically examine some of the main arguments provided by the North-American linguist Noam Chomsky to support the thesis of an innate origin of a universal grammar, which is commonly associated with the rationalist philosophical tradition, as the only possible explanation of the specific features of human language and its acquisition around early childhood. Some criticisms made by Thomas Nagel on Chomsky's so-called biological innatism will be then examined, and at the end of the paper we shall defend Chomsky's arguments in favor of his innatism.
biological innatism; language; universal grammar; rationalism