The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker
ISBN: 9780140276053
Penguin, January 2002
509 pages, Paperback
As new. Shop soiled (Crease on front cover and bumped spine)
A brilliant inquiry into the origins of human nature from the author of The Better Angels of Our Nature and the forthcoming Enlightenment Now
"Sweeping, erudite, sharply argued, and fun to read..also highly persuasive." -Time
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.
A brilliant inquiry into the origins of human nature from the author of The Better Angels of Our Nature and the forthcoming Enlightenment Now
"Sweeping, erudite, sharply argued, and fun to read..also highly persuasive." -Time
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.