The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature

In The Blank Slate , Steven Pinker, 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.

The blank slate, the noble savage and the ghost in the machine: the official theory;
silly putty;
the last wall to fall;
culture vultures;
the slate's last stand. Fear and loathing: political scientists;
the Holy Trinity. Human nature with a human face: the fear of inequality;
the fear of imperfectability;
the fear of determinism;
the fear of nihilism. Know thyself: in touch with reality;
out of our depths;
the many roots of our suffering;
the sanctimonious animal. Hot buttons: politics;
violence;
gender;
children;
the arts. The voice of the species. Appendix: Donald E. Brown's list of human universals.