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The Blank Slate

The Modern Denial of Human Nature

By Steven Pinker

(27)

| Paperback | 9780140276053

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Book Description

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-Continue

Critics

Hoist by his own polemic

The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker Allen Lane £25, pp509 Here is an intriguing question. Who wrote the following words? 'A child's mind is a blank book. During the first years of his life, much will be written on the pages. The quality of that writing ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

It's all in the mind

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker 434pp, Allen Lane, £25 This is really two books in one, which may be why it is rather long. "Pinker One" lays out convincingly the reasons why we cannot possibly do without a concept ... (read full critics)

guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

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2 Reviews

The authos argue that we are not born naive like a blank slate, where the parent, teacher, society can write on it whatever they want. Not true at all.
We are all born with language instinct, we are all born with some pre-set wiring.
The author urge the scientist society and the genera ... (continue)

The authos argue that we are not born naive like a blank slate, where the parent, teacher, society can write on it whatever they want. Not true at all.
We are all born with language instinct, we are all born with some pre-set wiring.
The author urge the scientist society and the general society not to worry too much on the taboo, or the political correctness on arguing that we are all born pre-wired. Too many people are worried that if we are not born as blank slate, that hints that we are not equal and this will be a evidence to justify racism, etc.
Well, this does not make sense for scientific progress, right. If this is true, there is not point in denying it. We should be objective in it, and work on undiscovering what is already written there when we were born.

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Samsara said on Nov 7, 2009 | Add your feedback

He shows his political cards here. His thesis is surely right, and there really is a lot of silly hostility to Darwinism in the way that he describes. Dennett touches on this too.

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Leebeck said on Feb 29, 2008 about the Hardcover edition | Add your feedback