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. |
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 African Americans American animals argue behavior behavioral genetics believe biologist biology Blank Slate Boston Globe brain called Cambridge cause Chagnon Chapter child cognitive cognitive neuroscience concept conflict connectionism cortex Cosmides crime culture Daly & Wilson doctrine emotions environment ethnic evolution evolutionary psychology evolved example explain fact fear feminism gender genes genetic genome heritability human nature idea identical twins images individual innate intellectual intelligence intuitions John Tooby kind language learning Lewontin living logic male mental mind moral natural selection neural neurons neuroscience Noble Savage organism parents person philosopher Pinker Plomin political punishment rape reason reciprocal altruism scientific scientists sense sexual siblings social Social Darwinism society Sociobiology soul species stereotypes theory things thought tion Tooby traits Trivers understanding University Press violence Vision visual visual cortex women words wrote Yanomamö 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 |