The Blank Slate

Description

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.

First Sentence

"BLANK SLATE" IS a loose translation of the medieval Latin term tabula rasa-literally, "scraped tablet."

Subjects

Other Editions

• The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human NaturePenguin (Non-Classics)2003-08-26
• The blank slateViking2002-01-01
• The blank slatePenguin2002-01-01
• The Blank SlateViking Press2002-01-01
• The Blank SlatePaperbackViking2002-01-01
• The Blank SlateViking Penguin2002-01-01