- Hardcover: 528 pages
- Publisher: Penguin Putnam (Sep 2002)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0670031518
- ISBN-13: 978-0670031511
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 16 x 4.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 981,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
The Blank Slate
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Amazon.co.uk Review
In The Blank Slate, the bestselling author Steven Pinker produces his most polemical and convincing attack upon the nurture side of the nature versus nurture debate. Pinker's previous books The Language Instinctand How the Mind Works have already attracted huge praise and controversy in arguing that language and cognition are natural rather than cultural. In The Blank Slate he refines and extends his arguments.
The book is aimed at "people who wonder where the taboo against human nature came from", and promises to explain "the moral, emotional and political colorings of the concept of human nature in modern life". For Pinker, the belief that we are all born as "blank slates" upon which culture places its decisive imprint is not only wrong but dangerous. He persuasively argues that "the conviction that humanity could be reshaped by massive social engineering projects led to some of the greatest atrocities in history". This is all very well, but at over 500 pages it can also be daunting for the general reader, as Pinker takes on all-comers, from biologists and sociologists to a dizzying array of classical thinkers from Calvin and Hobbes to Marx and Dawkins. The sections on gender will undoubtedly inflame many feminist writers (the most persuasive of which Pinker sadly neglects to discuss), and the criticisms of modern art are flimsy, but The Blank Slate is an impressive and sustained broadside that cannot be ignored. -–Jerry Brotton --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
Pinker challenges conventional wisdom that our thoughts and feelings seep into our heads from the surrounding culture.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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First Sentence
"BLANK SLATE" is a loose translation of the medieval Latin term tabula rasa-literally, "scraped tablet." Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
"BLANK SLATE" is a loose translation of the medieval Latin term tabula rasa-literally, "scraped tablet." Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
56 of 59 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This profound book examines 3 doctrines: The Blank Slate (no human nature), The Noble Savage (no selfish or evil instincts), and The Ghost in the Machine (independent existence of the mind from the body/brain).
Steven Pinker elegantly presents the evidence against these views, sometimes in concise and quite overwhelmingly devastating lists.
In a small way this subject matter is similar to J.Diamond's 'The 3rd Chimpanzee' or E.O. Wilson's 'Consilience'- showing that we are imperfect products of evolution, limited in knowledge and wisdom, tempted by status and power, and blinded by self-deception and delusions of moral superiority.
If this were all the book was about it would still be fascinating reading. Fortunately however, Pinker has gone two steps further, thus making this book a landmark in the Nature/Nurture debate.
Firstly he explains that the reason why so many people (Postmodernists, Marxists, Gender Feminists etc) want to believe in these 3 doctrines is based on fears of inequality, determinism, imperfectability, and nihilism. He examines each of these fears and demonstrates that they are based on a poverty of understanding of human nature (the 3 doctrines), a myriad of fallacies and non sequiturs, a lack of understanding of ethics, and moralistic self-displays.
Secondly, in agreement with Chekhov's 'Man will become better when you show him what he is like', Pinker gives powerful and sensible arguments how an accurate understanding of human nature would aid in the reduction of violence & oppression and increase human happiness. They are a real and timely intellectual treat, brimming with positive potential of application.
For those new to evolutionary psychology I would recommend that they first read Pinker's 'How the Mind Works' or Robert Wright's 'The Moral Animal'.
It would be an understatement to say that this book is eye-opening. I would regard this book as essential reading to those that think that the Greek's advice 'Know thyself' is sage.
Steven Pinker elegantly presents the evidence against these views, sometimes in concise and quite overwhelmingly devastating lists.
In a small way this subject matter is similar to J.Diamond's 'The 3rd Chimpanzee' or E.O. Wilson's 'Consilience'- showing that we are imperfect products of evolution, limited in knowledge and wisdom, tempted by status and power, and blinded by self-deception and delusions of moral superiority.
If this were all the book was about it would still be fascinating reading. Fortunately however, Pinker has gone two steps further, thus making this book a landmark in the Nature/Nurture debate.
Firstly he explains that the reason why so many people (Postmodernists, Marxists, Gender Feminists etc) want to believe in these 3 doctrines is based on fears of inequality, determinism, imperfectability, and nihilism. He examines each of these fears and demonstrates that they are based on a poverty of understanding of human nature (the 3 doctrines), a myriad of fallacies and non sequiturs, a lack of understanding of ethics, and moralistic self-displays.
Secondly, in agreement with Chekhov's 'Man will become better when you show him what he is like', Pinker gives powerful and sensible arguments how an accurate understanding of human nature would aid in the reduction of violence & oppression and increase human happiness. They are a real and timely intellectual treat, brimming with positive potential of application.
For those new to evolutionary psychology I would recommend that they first read Pinker's 'How the Mind Works' or Robert Wright's 'The Moral Animal'.
It would be an understatement to say that this book is eye-opening. I would regard this book as essential reading to those that think that the Greek's advice 'Know thyself' is sage.
47 of 50 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The 'blank slate' of the title is the human mind at birth, a view held, often implicitly, by our modern society, which has been conditioned to accept this by religions, progressive educationists, and the left in general. Those who hold the opposing view, that much of our nature is inherited, are subjected to frequent and vicious personal attacks (see the reviews of this book).
Pinker, however, is made of stern stuff, and has put a large explosive device under his opponents with this book based, as it is, on carefully documented research and grounded in appropriate theory. He ranges from genetics to computational linguistics via neurology and statistical theory in dazzling fashion.
It might seem that the weight of evidence gathered might cause the book to be heavy going, but the writing is sharper, and the touch is lighter and more humorous than anyone has a right to expect. As an example, consider the following, after a discussion on the effects of ageing: "Forget 'As the twig is bent, so the tree grows', think 'Omigod, I'm turning into my parents'".
While there are parts to the book which some will question, Pinker has turned the searchlights of reason and common sense on much of the political correctness of our time, showing how ludicrous most of it is, and showing also how science is beginning to give us a better understanding of what is meant by 'human nature'. If 'the proper study of mankind is man' then this is the essential primer.
Pinker, however, is made of stern stuff, and has put a large explosive device under his opponents with this book based, as it is, on carefully documented research and grounded in appropriate theory. He ranges from genetics to computational linguistics via neurology and statistical theory in dazzling fashion.
It might seem that the weight of evidence gathered might cause the book to be heavy going, but the writing is sharper, and the touch is lighter and more humorous than anyone has a right to expect. As an example, consider the following, after a discussion on the effects of ageing: "Forget 'As the twig is bent, so the tree grows', think 'Omigod, I'm turning into my parents'".
While there are parts to the book which some will question, Pinker has turned the searchlights of reason and common sense on much of the political correctness of our time, showing how ludicrous most of it is, and showing also how science is beginning to give us a better understanding of what is meant by 'human nature'. If 'the proper study of mankind is man' then this is the essential primer.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I'd already read the book, but still I had to buy it. The overwhelmingly thorough documentation presented as to determine the human mind, being not a blank slate but an evolutionarily determined complexity, is not only convincing, it states the evolutionary heritage an inevitable fact. The strentgh of the book, however, also describes its weakness. Apparently determined to change a ruling blank slate paradigm Pinker remains in attack mode and consequently, he fails to disclose,(he may not know?)in which way he and other evolutionary psychologists concider the evolutionary understanding a task enhancing improvement. How does he (they)solve the problem of competing traits? How will he (they)distinguish among trait determinations on the side of the investigating part from occurrences investigated? The fields of social science are among other characteristica characterized by the fact that interventions, whatever they basically refer to science, religion or ideologi, necessarily have to be considered by nature interactive with the object determined and investigated and thus by nature, can be determined to be trait-acts.
Nevertheless, in my opinion the first hundred pages could likely be considered obligatory reading to any student and any other with interests within the fields of social science. Reading "The Blank Slate" certainly will provide broad and knowledgeable insight with related and interconnected fields of science, and will most probably alter previous beleifs.
Nevertheless, in my opinion the first hundred pages could likely be considered obligatory reading to any student and any other with interests within the fields of social science. Reading "The Blank Slate" certainly will provide broad and knowledgeable insight with related and interconnected fields of science, and will most probably alter previous beleifs.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Heavy stuff!
I did read The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker as a paperback, but still it was so heavy at times that I did not have strength to read it more than half an hour at a time at some... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Wallenius Jaakko
Fundementally important book
In my view this is probably one of the most important books to have been written so far about the human condition. Why? Read more
Published 4 months ago by Jonathan
The outsider
Blank Slate is a defence of, for want of a better term, pseudo-genetic determinism. Pinker argues that while genetic research has not reached an appropriate level of knowledge to... Read more
Published 5 months ago by markss
Not controversial enough !
This book presents Stevens' conclusions about the role of hereditary in human behavior, based on his reading of the literature. Read more
Published 6 months ago by J. Penfold
Excellent account of nature/nurture
The interrelationship between nature and nurture is an endlessly intriguing and controversial subject. Read more
Published 14 months ago by anozama
A blank slate indeed
Sociobiology is a branch of Neo-Darwinian evolutionary biology which became controversial about 35 years ago, when some scientists started applying it to humans. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Ashtar Command
great book
conversant, extroverted, fluid, charming, and also a bit too speculative. in blessings and curses, this truly is a magnificent book
Published 19 months ago by asp
really interesting
This book is really interesting and really useful for anyone interested or studying psychology like i am. it presents the nature/nurture debate in an interesting and clear way.
Published 20 months ago by AP
Unreadable Edition
This may be a great book but I wouldn't know.
I like books on human nature, but just couldn't get into this edition because the print is so small and crammed into each... Read more
I like books on human nature, but just couldn't get into this edition because the print is so small and crammed into each... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Sensible Bloke
Baseless polemical rhetoric. A compendium of dated, challenged or...
I found this book to be absolutely baseless. Pinker asks all the wrong questions, and inevitably, gets all the wrong answers. Read more
Published on 14 Feb 2010 by Mr. L. Buckley
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