The Blank Slate

The Modern Denial of Human Nature

Steven Pinker | 4.29 | 23,251 ratings and reviews

Recommended by David Brooks, and 1 others. See all reviews

Ranked #8 in Evolutionary Psychology, Ranked #18 in Cognitive Psychology — see more rankings.

“In a work of outstanding clarity and sheer brilliance Steven Pinker banishes forever fears that a biological understanding of human nature threatens humane values.”
—Helena Cronin, author of The Ant and The Peacock

“A mind blowing, mind openingexpos. Pinker's profoundly positive arguments for the compatibility of biology and humanism are unrivalled for their scope and depth and should be mandatory, if disquieting, reading.”
—Patricia Goldman-Rakic, past president of the Society for Neuroscience

In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. He shows how many intellectuals have denied the existence of human nature by embracing three linked dogmas: the Blank Slate (the mind has no innate traits), the Noble Savage (people are born good and corrupted by society), and the Ghost in the Machine (each of us has a soul that makes choices free from biology). Each dogma carries a moral burden, so their defenders have engaged in desperate tactics to discredit the scientists who are now challenging them.

Pinker injects calm and rationality into these debates by showing that equality, progress, responsibility, and purpose have nothing to fear from discoveries about a rich human nature. He disarms even the most menacing threats with clear thinking, common sense, and pertinent facts from science and history.

Despite its popularity among intellectuals during much of the twentieth century, he argues, the doctrine of the Blank Slate may have done more harm than good. It denies our common humanity and our individual preferences, replaces hardheaded analyses of social problems with feel-good slogans, and distorts our understanding of government, violence, parenting, and the arts.

Pinker shows that an acknowledgement of human nature that is grounded in science and common sense, far from being dangerous, can complement insights about the human condition made by millennia of artists and philosophers. All this is done in the style that earned his previous books many prizes and worldwide acclaim: wit, lucidity, and insight into matters great and small. less

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Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of The Blank Slate from the world's leading experts.

David Brooks An argument against the old view that there is no such thing as human nature, that we’re all culturally determined. He brings together a ton of evidence that that’s wrong. (Source)

Rankings by Category

The Blank Slate is ranked in the following categories:

#97 in Anthropology
#67 in Biology
#82 in Brain
#25 in Developmental Psychology
#39 in Evolution
#94 in Factual
#53 in Genetics
#86 in Human Brain
#23 in Human Nature
#51 in Life Sciences
#61 in Linguistics
#56 in Mind
#76 in Morality
#41 in Neurology
#63 in Neuroscience
#98 in Personality
#71 in Popular Science
#100 in Psycho
#61 in Psychology
#54 in Reasoning
#81 in Science and Math
#86 in Social Psychology
#74 in Social Sciences

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