The Blank Slate

Name: The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
ISBN: 9780142003343

The Modern Denial of Human Nature

Steven Pinker, Victor Bevine, Roc Filella Escolà, ʻImanuʾel Loṭem

2003·528 pages·Nonfiction

History & Politics Science & Mind

class and inequality culture clash freedom morality and ethics problem solving provocative

Pulitzer Prize (2003) · Nominee

“Sweeping, erudite, sharply argued, and fun to read..also highly persuasive.”
— Time

A brilliant inquiry into the origins of human nature from the author of Rationality, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Enlightenment Now. Updated with a new afterword 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.

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