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. 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. The Blank Slate, which combines scientific insights from genetics, neuroscience, computer science, and evolutionary biology, is Pinker's rejoinder to such critics. 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. In outlining this 'blank slate' position Pinker places much of the blame for its prevalence on the Behaviorist program that dominated psychological thinking from the 1930s through the 1960s. also highly persuasive.' -Michael Lemonick, TimeĪ brilliant inquiry into the origins of human nature. Steven Pinker is Johnstone Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. The crux of Pinker's book is a negative argument: the 'blank slate' of the title is a position he attempts to discredit, not defend.

'Sweeping, erudite, sharply argued, and fun to read.

The Blank Slate by Steven Pinker