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From Publishers Weekly
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"BLANK SLATE" IS a loose translation of the medieval Latin term tabula rasa-literally, "scraped tablet." Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Blank Fate - will the truth set you free?,
By Trevor Bulley (Perth, Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Paperback)
This is a deep and wide book about human nature, why you are you and I am me. The premise of the Blank Slate, that our nature is infinitely plastic and entirely formed by environmental factors, is refuted in this book. Instead, the author proposes a somewhat flexible genetic template modified by the environment, within definite, but not fully understood parameters. In the past, biological determinism has been tainted by fatalistic views on our inherent goodness or evil and accountability for our behaviour. The concept of free will, its influence on our behaviour and moral codes is a highly political and emotive topic so buckle up tight for the ride.He spends many pages covering this aspect of human science, showing how and why, clearly unsubstantiated theories like the Blank Slate, the Ghost in the Machine, the Noble Savage, have endured, and in becoming part of folklore had an ongoing impact upon the education, political and economic systems of the West. Pinker slaughters many sacred cows, but this is no bloodbath. Dismembering religious, scientific and political bigotry in the search for knowledge, it is a crisp, rational attack. A banquet of disciplines get skewered - psychology, religion, evolution, politics, philosophy, all of which offer conflicting explanations for human nature. Racism, sexism et al, are discussed in search of the ultimate 'ism' - truth. These are controversial topics, so you're sure to disagree with some. But the logic is compelling and you will be hard pressed to justify an opposing view. A person with a razor sharp intellect, Pinker keeps the book clear, logical and jargon free, however it is not a trivial read. The breadth of topic and logic is quite staggering, making it a significant journey of 430 pages, yet few words are wasted, each page offering something of relevance. Accessible to the lay reader this book will also serve well as an academic text, so thorough is its approach and content. Predictably, the author takes a moral stance, defining morality itself as an external and independent entity, in spite of citing numerous examples of moral relativity that societies' exhibit. I found this at odds with the objective science in the book. Although Pinker does not introduce any single mind wrenching concept in his book, as Richard Dawkins does in "The Selfish Gene", the perspective is so clear and comprehensive, if you are looking for a single book on nature vs nurture, you will not do better than this.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Achieves its goals and then wanders,
By S.R. Prozak (Alief, TX) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Blank Slate (Hardcover)
This book explores an important topic, the concept that human beings exist without any biologically deterministic viewpoints and thus can be shaped completely by the "correct" ideas from society itself, but when it leaves firm science falls into the very system of thought that it laments.Pinker explores the history of biological determinism, and dissects the major arguments against it, effectively proving his point by page 223; however, from that point onward, he discusses the "positive" applications of his research from a progressivist, scientistic, and individualistic viewpoint, thus affirming the very belief systems that gave rise to his much-detest concept of the "Blank Slate." While the first half of this book is thus insightful and politically controversial research, the second half is the kind of social platitudes that one might expect from a professor who teaches introductory creative writing, not a lucid mind. However, the book remains important for its comprehensive and diligent tackling of what is perhaps the greatest pseudo-scientific mythos of our time.
3 of 4 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Time for social scientists to go back to the drawing board.,
By Gobifish (Ottawa, Ontario) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Paperback)
This book is simply amazing. It explains in great detail just how wrong we've been until now about...well, everything. Pinker explains how Evolutionary Psychology (or Sociobiology) is the only discipline that can come up with a reasonably predictive model of human behavior.You'll notice many social scientists (psychologists, sociologists, anthropologists, etc...) reacting very harshly toward this book. That is because Pinker exposes the assumptions that make up the very foundation of much of their disciplines as completely false. Evolutionary psychology provides the basis for understanding human behavior, interactions, and deviances. A century from now, we'll look back at the twentieth century "behavioral model", what Pinker refers to as the "Standard Social Science Model" (or "SSSM"), much the same way we look at alchemy and bloodletting today. Read this book. It will challenge your most cherished beliefs regarding the motivations that underly human behavior. And it makes an important contribution toward the necessary demolition of social science as we know it.
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