{"id":129648,"date":"2024-09-15T11:55:53","date_gmt":"2024-09-15T15:55:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=129648"},"modified":"2024-09-16T12:52:23","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T16:52:23","slug":"critique-of-romanticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/critique-of-romanticism\/","title":{"rendered":"Steven Pinker&#8217;s Critique of Romanticism\u2014With Help From Science"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Is human nature inherently good or bad? Are we born altruistic or selfish?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>The Blank Slate<\/em>, Steven Pinker explores the philosophy of romanticism and its impact on our understanding of human nature. He challenges the notion that humans are naturally benevolent and examines the scientific evidence against this view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Read on for a thought-provoking critique of romanticism and its implications for individual and social progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-philosophy-of-romanticism\">The Philosophy of Romanticism<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Although empiricism is the cornerstone of the mainstream intellectual <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/views-of-human-nature\/\">view of human nature<\/a>, Pinker contends that it\u2019s typically accompanied by <em>romanticism<\/em> and provides a critique of romanticism. According to romanticism, <strong>humans are innately benevolent and altruistic<\/strong>, while our environments are responsible for our unsavory traits, like greed and aggressiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This view, which is most commonly associated with 18th-century French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, suggests that individuals who develop free from corruptive <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/societal-pressures\/\">societal pressures<\/a> will remain perfectly good. Pinker reports that, for this reason, romanticism generally opposes authoritarian approaches to government and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/raising-children\/\">raising children<\/a>, since both can corrupt otherwise good-natured people.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Rousseau\u2019s romanticism represented a negative reaction to the Enlightenment, a 17th- and 18th-century intellectual movement that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/event\/Enlightenment-European-history\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">uplifted reason as a method for understanding the universe<\/a>. Rousseau, unlike Enlightenment thinkers, emphasized emotions like compassion as central to the human experience, prioritizing them over reason. But despite this difference, Rousseau agreed with Enlightenment thinkers who typically emphasized the <a href=\"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-hccc-worldhistory2\/chapter\/the-enlightenment\/#:~:text=It%20was%20centered%20around%20the,separation%20of%20church%20and%20state.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">importance of individual liberty in government<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-alleged-benefit-of-romanticism\">The Alleged Benefit of Romanticism<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Advocates of the mainstream view of human nature discuss the benefit of romanticism. According to Pinker, <strong>many intellectuals embrace romanticism because it makes individual and social progress possible.&nbsp;<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s explore these proponents\u2019 reasoning. To understand the connection between romanticism and progress, imagine that romanticism were <em>false<\/em>, meaning humans weren\u2019t naturally benevolent and altruistic. If humans instead had a natural predisposition toward\u2014for example\u2014greed, violence, and dishonesty, it would appear futile to work toward progress. After all, if society is full of inherently immoral people, any hope of creating a just society seems ill-founded. Likewise, any hope of individual moral progress seems bound to fail.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: In contrast to the view that we\u2019re naturally immoral, some scientists argue that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanscientist.org\/article\/social-justice-is-it-in-our-nature-and-our-future\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">we\u2019ve evolved to have a deeply ingrained sense of <em>fairness <\/em>and <em>justice<\/em><\/a> because just societies best ensure our species\u2019 survival. For this reason, they contend that the trend toward social progress is a predictable consequence of our nature: We\u2019re naturally repulsed by unfairness and injustice, and therefore we aren\u2019t content with flawed societies. In other words, evolution may have guided us <em>toward <\/em>the romantic view of humanity.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-pinker-s-critique-of-romanticism\">Pinker\u2019s Critique of Romanticism<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>However, Pinker argues that<strong> this line of reasoning stems from a shoddy inference<\/strong>. Contrary to the above argument, Pinker writes that humans don\u2019t have to be <em>incapable<\/em> of altruism even if they aren\u2019t <em>naturally<\/em> altruistic. It\u2019s far more reasonable to think that humans are complex beings whose naturally problematic desires are tempered by abilities like self-restraint and reason. Consequently, progress is possible even if romanticism is false since humans can learn to conquer their desires.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>(Shortform note: Pinker\u2019s suggestion that our desires are tempered by reason has much in common with Plato\u2019s tripartite account of the soul, which states that the soul is composed of desire, reason, and the spirit. According to Plato, the soul is most conducive to well-being <a href=\"https:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/entries\/ancient-soul\/#3.2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">when reason rules over desire<\/a>, and the spirit assists reason in its rule\u2014otherwise, we\u2019d be overcome by unsavory desires.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-the-scientific-argument-against-romanticism\">The Scientific Argument Against Romanticism<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Pinker points out that <strong>evolutionary psychology is at odds with romanticism<\/strong> since evolution has steered the brain toward selfishness rather than romantic altruism.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He clarifies that, according to evolutionary psychology, the brain\u2019s tendencies are byproducts of <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/natural-selection-in-evolution\/\">natural selection<\/a><\/em>\u2014the process by which genes that are most likely to be passed down to future generations are selected for and become more frequent. For example, because intelligent people are more likely to survive and therefore reproduce, genes for intelligence are selected for and\u2014as intelligent people reproduce\u2014become more frequent in the population.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Consequently, genes that encourage selfishness are likely to prevail over altruistic genes, because acting selfishly maximizes our chances of reproducing and passing down our genes. For instance, if our brains were predisposed to horde food, that would increase our chance of surviving long enough to reproduce.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Evolution and the Problem of Altruism<\/strong><br><br>Although Pinker argues that evolutionary science is at odds with an altruistic view of human nature, some evolutionary biologists disagree. For example, in <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-selfish-gene\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>The Selfish Gene<\/em><\/a>, Richard Dawkins acknowledges that although evolution <em>generally <\/em>predisposes us to be selfish, it can <a href=\"https:\/\/shortform.com\/app\/book\/the-selfish-gene\/chapter-12\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">also instill altruism in settings where cooperation would help the whole group survive and reproduce<\/a>.<br><br>Experts point out that if natural selection only acted at the level of <em>individual <\/em>organisms, <a href=\"https:\/\/plato.stanford.edu\/entries\/altruism-biological\/#AltLevSel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">we\u2019d have no reason to expect altruism to evolve<\/a>. But, because organisms of the same species have significant genetic overlaps, natural selection might program us to act benevolently toward those who share our genetic material. For this reason, humans might feel inclined to share their resources with members of their family or broader society, even though doing so could decrease their <em>individual <\/em>chances of surviving long enough to reproduce.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is human nature inherently good or bad? Are we born altruistic or selfish? In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker explores the philosophy of romanticism and its impact on our understanding of human nature. He challenges the notion that humans are naturally benevolent and examines the scientific evidence against this view. Read on for a thought-provoking critique of romanticism and its implications for individual and social progress.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":129656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,9,160],"tags":[1582],"class_list":["post-129648","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy","category-psychology","category-science","tag-the-blank-slate","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Steven Pinker&#039;s Critique of Romanticism\u2014With Help From Science - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Steven Pinker critiques romanticism and how it shapes our understanding of human nature. 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