The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
Steven Pinker
(Author)
Description
A brilliant inquiry into the origins of human nature from the author of Rationality, The Better Angels of Our Nature, and Enlightenment Now. "Sweeping, erudite, sharply argued, and fun to read..also highly persuasive." --Time Finalist for the Pulitzer PrizeUpdated 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.
Product Details
Price
$22.00
$20.46
Publisher
Penguin Books
Publish Date
August 26, 2003
Pages
560
Dimensions
6.06 X 9.3 X 1.16 inches | 1.27 pounds
Language
English
Type
Paperback
EAN/UPC
9780142003343
BISAC Categories:
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About the Author
Steven Pinker, author of The Better Angels of our Nature, is the Harvard College Professor of Psychology at Harvard University. A two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist and the winner of many awards for his research, teaching, and books, he has been named one of Time's 100 Most Influential People in the World Today and Foreign Policy's 100 Global Thinkers.
Reviews
Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize "An extremely good book-clear, well argued, fair, learned, tough, witty, humane, stimulating." (The Washington Post) "Pinker makes his main argument persuasively and with great verve...ought to be read by anybody who feels they hav had enough of the nature-nurture rows." (The Economist) "Stylish...what a superb thinker and writer he is." (Richard Dawkins, TLS) "Required reading...an unanswerable case for accepting that man can be, as he is, both wired and free." (Frederick Raphael, Los Angeles Times)
