It is also one of the earliest ones, first posited by John Locke in “ An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,” back in 1690. The blank slate: empiricismĪs the title reveals, this explanation of human nature is the one Pinker is interested in the most. In the first part of “ The Blank Slate,” Pinker introduces us to the three most influential theories about human nature ever developed and then examines their flaws. And he provides lots of evidence to corroborate this claim. In other words, as far as the author is concerned, nature beats nurture by a country mile. And he explains why in “ The Blank Slate.” The tabula rasa modelįirst and foremost, Pinker attempts to demonstrate to which extent human behavior is shaped by evolutionary and psychological adaptations refuting the theory that we are all born as a tabula rasa. No matter what they say, no matter what you’ve been taught, it’s critical that you recognize this. Pinker’s argument goes beyond that of our genes play a large part in making us who we are and states that they have a much bigger role than upbringing. In a nutshell – as should be only obvious according to Pinker – these building blocks are the ones we’d describe as the genes.

After all, Steven Pinker’s objective in it is to challenge most of the modern views on what makes us human and to demonstrate that, due to modern politics and sociology, most of us are in denial when it comes to the basic building blocks of the human nature. As you can infer from the subtitle, “ The Blank Slate” is not one of your skim-on-the-beach or speed-read-in-your-bed just-to-pass-the-time-or-fall-asleep books.

The blank slate by steven pinker