The Blank Slate: the Modern Denial of Human Nature

Publisher Marketing: Our conceptions of human nature affect every aspect of our lives, from the way we raise our children to the political movements we embrace. Yet just as science is bringing us into a golden age of understanding human nature, many people are hostile to the very idea. They fear that discoveries about innate patterns of thinking and feeling may be used to justify inequality, to subvert social change, to dissolve personal responsibility, and to strip life of meaning and purpose. In "The Blank Slate," Steven Pinker, bestselling author of "The Language Instinct" and "How the Mind Works," explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. He shows how many intellectuals have denied the existence of human nature by embracing three linked dogmas: the Blank Slate (the mind has no innate traits), the Noble Savage (people are born good and corrupted by society), and the Ghost in the Machine (each of us has a soul that makes choices free from biology). Each dogma carries a moral burden, so their defenders have engaged in desperate tactics to discredit the scientists who are now challenging them. Pinker injects calm and rationality into these debates by showing that equality, progress, responsibility, and purpose have nothing to fear from discoveries about a rich human nature. He disarms even the most menacing threats with clear thinking, common sense, and pertinent facts from science and history. Despite its popularity among intellectuals during much of the twentieth century, he argues, the doctrine of the Blank Slate may have done more harm than good. It denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces hardheaded analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of government, violence, parenting, and the arts. Pinker shows that an acknowledgment of human nature that is grounded in science and common sense, far from being dangerous, can complement insights about the human condition made by millennia of artists and philosophers. All this is done in the style that earned his previous books many prizes and worldwide acclaim: wit, lucidity, and insight into matters great and small. Review Citations: New York Times 09/21/2003 pg. 32 (EAN 9780142003343, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2004 pg. 44 (EAN 9780142003343, Paperback) Vanity Fair 11/01/2008 pg. 112 (EAN 9780142003343, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 12/31/2008 pg. 52 (EAN 9780142003343, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2013 pg. 63 (EAN 9780142003343, Paperback) Library Journal Prepub Alert 07/01/2002 pg. 61 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2002 pg. 1105 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) - *Starred Review Publishers Weekly 08/12/2002 pg. 292 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) New York Times 10/13/2002 pg. 9 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) New Yorker (The) 11/25/2002 pg. 96 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) Discover 01/01/2003 pg. 80 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) New York Times 12/08/2002 pg. 66 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) New York Review of Books 02/27/2003 pg. 17 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2002 pg. 6 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2004 pg. 44 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) Library Journal 07/15/2002 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 12/31/2008 pg. 52 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/2013 pg. 63 (EAN 9780670031511, Hardcover) Contributor Bio:  Pinker, Steven Steven Pinker is Harvard College Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. His books The "Language Instinct, How the Mind Works, The Blank Slate", and " The Better Angels of Our Nature" have won numerous prizes. Contributor Bio:  Bevine, Victor For over thirty years, Victor Bevine has worked as an actor, screenwriter, audio book narrator, director, and more. A graduate of Yale University, his acting credits include many prestigious roles onstage as well as roles in the film version of A Separate Peace and countless television shows. He has read over one hundred and eighty titles as an audiobook narrator; in 2010, he received an Audiophone Award for his narration of the Pulitzer Prize winning book The Beak of the Finch. He has written several screenplays, including Certainty, which was chosen for two prestigious writers conferences and which served as the basis for his first novel. His thirty-minute short film Desert Cross, which he wrote and directed, won accolades at the Athens International Film Festival. Currently, he serves as CEO of the World Freerunning Parkour Federation (WFPF), of which he is co-founder. He resides in New York City.