The Blank Slate According to Steven Pinker 1

Professor of Psychology and Researcher Steven Pinker demystifies and then re-creates the idea of nature-nurture in his book, The Blank Slate. This book dramatically impacts the way modern scientists and the general populous understands human nature. "The refusal to acknowledge human nature" Pinker says, "is like the Victorians' embarrassment about sex, only worse: It distorts our science and scholarship, our public discourse, and our day-to-day lives":

1. The doctrine of the Blank Slate wrongly effects all sects of society. This theory does not allow space for the influence of genes.
   
2. Blank Slate theory does not allow space for the collective to talk about human nature.
   
3. The facade over human nature blinds us from making sound decisions, what Pinker calls, "a disconnect between intellectual life and common sense". Thus, misinformation can lead to ignorance which an harvest mass enslavement (i.e. what the Catholic Church was to the masses in Europe during the Dark Ages).
4. Denial of human nature harms the lives of individuals.
   

In The Blank Slate The Modern Denial of Human Nature, Pinker quotes Chekhov to iluminate his driving goal: allow man to see how he can become better once he sees what he is like, as he quotes Chekhov. He meticulously unravels the thread, that which binds our fears to ourselves. In so doing he illuminates how it is that our fears are what holds us back from advancing our collective mind, thus delaying human development by opening up for discussion what most would not think to question, leave alone talk about- our values. By detaching our values from our "psychological make-up" we can better see the line that distinguishes truth from its fallacies.

I was introduced to Pinker by my Linguistics Professor a few years ago and I have been enthralled by his writing ever since. Each blog that follows will summarize one chapter of his book The Blank Slate and a very brief personal analysis.