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such rules being represented in the brain. Instead, the appearance of rules for an internal
language is due to interactions among different principles and their various parameter settings.
There are innate mental representations of the principles of all possible natural languages. What
is learned are the parameter settings and vocabulary.
The point here is that linguistic nativism is compatible with there being more than one
language. One cannot rule out a priori there being a theory of moral nativism which is
compatible with there being irresolvable moral conflicts.
Relational Models Theory
The psychologist and anthropologist Alan Page Fiske has a theory of moral intuitions
which applies the P&P approach to social intelligence. If right, his theory would also explain
much of moral diversity. It would lend great support to mere pluralism while refuting relativism.
According to Fiske’s relational models theory, there are four innate grammars explaining
the construction, interpretation, and normative evaluation of social relations. They are as
follows: Communal Sharing relations assume a bounded group the members of which are
equivalent. Each member treats each of the others as the same. Intense love, close kinship, and
nationalism are all recognizable as forms of Communal Sharing. Authority Ranking assumes an
asymmetry, with people linearly ordered according to a hierarchy. Those higher in rank enjoy
prestige and privileges lacked by those below, but the latter are entitled to some form of
protection or pastoral care from the former. Equality Matching strives for an even balance or
one-to-one correspondence. Examples include distributive justice, taking turns, in-kind
reciprocity, and compensation by equal replacement. In such a relation, people are concerned
with maintaining balance and keeping track of how balanced the relations are. In a Market
Pricing relation, people attend to ratios and rates. All relevant features are made commensurate