The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
by:
Steven Pinker (author)
In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits-a...
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In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker, one of the world's leading experts on language and the mind, explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. With characteristic wit, lucidity, and insight, Pinker argues that the dogma that the mind has no innate traits-a doctrine held by many intellectuals during the past century-denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces objective analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of politics, violence, parenting, and the arts. Injecting calm and rationality into debates that are notorious for ax-grinding and mud-slinging, Pinker shows the importance of an honest acknowledgment of human nature based on science and common sense.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780142003343 (0142003344)
ASIN: 142003344
Publish date: August 26th 2003
Publisher: Penguin
Pages no: 528
Edition language: English
Category:
Non Fiction,
Humanities,
Language,
Science,
Popular Science,
Biology,
Philosophy,
Sociology,
Anthropology,
Psychology,
Evolution
I actually didn't finish this one- I wish there were an option for "set aside for now"- because it reminded me too much of the controversy I lived through in my college days in the late 90s. While I agree with Pinker's position (and loved his Better Angels of Our Nature ) I had no wish to relive th...
Human is not blank slate. The social scientists are wrong for so many years. The pure behaviors are also wrong. Skinner is wrong to assume that the human behaviors are shaped by the environment. Freud is wrong of course. Cognitive psychology have to revised its theory to include some form o...
"Once again a Pinker book changed my world view."The book really opened my eyes about how we learn and become who we are. I had previously just accepted the various interruptions of the the noble savage, the ghost in the machine and the blank slate. Pinker demolishes and demonstrates why those inter...
I still haven't get to this yet. But watching the lecture on this topic will give us an idea what he is go about.Steven Pinker: Blank Slate