The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human NatureA brilliant inquiry into the origins of human nature from the author of Rationality, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Enlightenment Now. "Sweeping, erudite, sharply argued, and fun to read..also highly persuasive." --Time Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize Updated with a new afterword 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. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 93
Page ii
... Mind Works and The Language Instinct - will rightly guess that his latest effort is similarly sweeping , erudite ... minds .... If nothing else , Mr. Pinker's book is a wonderfully readable taster of new research , much of it ingenious ...
... Mind Works and The Language Instinct - will rightly guess that his latest effort is similarly sweeping , erudite ... minds .... If nothing else , Mr. Pinker's book is a wonderfully readable taster of new research , much of it ingenious ...
Page iii
... Mind Works , but it is as good - which is very high praise indeed . What a superb thinker and writer he is : what a ... minds of those who are rigidly committed to the blank slate perspective , but for anyone whose ' nature ' includes ...
... Mind Works , but it is as good - which is very high praise indeed . What a superb thinker and writer he is : what a ... minds of those who are rigidly committed to the blank slate perspective , but for anyone whose ' nature ' includes ...
Page iv
... mind ... This landmark book makes an important contribution to the argument about nature vs. nurture in humans . Whether or not most readers end up on Pinker's side of the fence , one can hope that his thoroughness and reasoning will ...
... mind ... This landmark book makes an important contribution to the argument about nature vs. nurture in humans . Whether or not most readers end up on Pinker's side of the fence , one can hope that his thoroughness and reasoning will ...
Page vii
... mind is a blank slate ? Isn't it obvious to anyone with more than one child , to anyone who has been in a heterosexual relation- ship , or to anyone who has noticed that children learn language but house pets don't , that people are ...
... mind is a blank slate ? Isn't it obvious to anyone with more than one child , to anyone who has been in a heterosexual relation- ship , or to anyone who has noticed that children learn language but house pets don't , that people are ...
Page viii
... mind might turn out to be wrong , but it is not wishy - washy or unexceptionable , even in the twenty - first century , thousands of years after the issue was framed . When it comes to explaining human thought and behavior , the ...
... mind might turn out to be wrong , but it is not wishy - washy or unexceptionable , even in the twenty - first century , thousands of years after the issue was framed . When it comes to explaining human thought and behavior , the ...
Contents
The Official Theory | 5 |
Silly Putty | 14 |
The Last Wall to Fall | 30 |
Culture Vultures | 59 |
The Slates Last Stand | 73 |
Fear and Loathing | 103 |
Political Scientists | 105 |
The Holy Trinity | 121 |
Out of Our Depths | 219 |
The Many Roots of Our Suffering | 241 |
The Sanctimonious Animal | 269 |
Hot Buttons | 281 |
Politics | 283 |
Violence | 306 |
Gender | 337 |
Children | 372 |
Human Nature with a Human Face | 137 |
The Fear of Inequality | 141 |
The Fear of Imperfectibility | 159 |
The Fear of Determinism | 174 |
The Fear of Nihilism | 186 |
Know Thyself | 195 |
In Touch with Reality | 197 |
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Common terms and phrases
ability American animals argue become behavior believe better biology Blank Slate body brain called Cambridge cause century Chapter child claim cognitive comes common complex concept cortex course culture effects emotions environment equality evolution evolutionary evolved example experience explain fact fear feel genes genetic give human nature idea identical images individual innate intellectual intelligence interests kind language learning less living logic look male Marxism Mass matter means mental mind moral objects organism parents person Pinker political Press problem psychology punishment rape reason recent responsibility scientists selection sense sexual share similar social society species theory things thought tion traits turn understanding University University Press values violence visual Wilson women wrote York
References to this book
Evolution in Four Dimensions: Genetic, Epigenetic, Behavioral, and Symbolic ... Eva Jablonka,Marion J. Lamb No preview available - 2005 |
Introduction to Psycholinguistics, 2/e, An Danny D Steinberg,Natalia V. Sciarini No preview available - 2006 |