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All different theoretical propositions that have been advanced to explain the initial state of cognition in newborn infants have encountered many difficulties in understanding the nature of the constraints that impact on its development and also fail to clarify the problematic link between biological and psychological organization. In this article we summarize, first of all, the major theoretical debates that have set nativists and constructivists against one another before presenting recent approaches based on probabilistic epigenetic frameworks that facilitate, to some extent, the answering of the question of a state of zero cognition.