Eric Heinz Lenneberg (19 September 1921 – 31 May 1975) was a linguist and neurologist who pioneered ideas on language acquisition and cognitive psychology, particularly in terms of the concept of innateness.
Lenneberg's biological approach to language was related to developments such as the motor theory of speech perception developed by Alvin Liberman and colleagues at Haskins Laboratories, which also provided historical antecedents to issues now emerging in embodied philosophy and embodied cognition.
Lenneberg reargued extensively against the psychological implications of the work of Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf, specifically in regard to the idea that language influences thought.
[1] Lenneberg's argument against this notion was that 'linguistic and non-linguistic events must be separately observed and described before they can be correlated.
'[2] Lenneberg was quite involved in the scientific community, as he was a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Sigma Xi, the Linguistic Society of America, the American Psychological Association, the Society for Research in Child Development, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.