The Blank Slate

The Modern Denial of Human Nature

By: Steven Pinker

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

Length: 22 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

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.

NOTE: Some changes to the original text have been made with the author's approval.

©2003 Steven Pinker (P)2009 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

"[P]ersuasive and illuminating." ( Publishers Weekly)

Thoroughly insightful read.

The chapter on children is the one that stood out for me. It evaluates and challenges most of the generally accepted ideas about raising kids and I am delighted that I’ve read it so early in my child’s life.

Pinker’s perspectives on gender also force you to rethink issues like feminism and the disproportionate representation of some genders is some roles.

This is a remarkable read.

Life changing perspective

Never in my life have I reacted so strongly to a book. The unrelenting truth of different aspects of human life backed up by so many sciento findings has fascinated me

Excelente

Un revulsivo excelente, equilibrado e inteligente a tanta tontería que nos han estado recetando desde las ciencias sociales y los púlpitos intelectuales desde hace tanto tiempo.

Gracias.

Even better the second time

A deluge of information about himan nature exhaustively analyzed and artfully presented. Instead of laying out both sides of an issue, Pinker lays out all sides of myriad issues dealing with our still limited understanding of human nature.

Get ready for, we'll alot! Lots of info.

Another take on a great debate. Are you born with it, or is it integrated into you. You will get a different view than you had and that is how it should be.

A book worth reading

A book on human nature that I found so rich and entertaining. The last chapter is full of creativity that is Steven Pinker’s hallmark

Excellent, as expected

I bought this as an audiobook so I would actually have time to read it - my husband read it several years ago and has been encouraging me to do so as well ever since, but although it's sitting on our bookshelf it never actually got read. Since I read Pinker's Better Angels of Our Nature by listening to the audiobook (and loved it), I thought I'd try the same with The Blank Slate.

I found reading this book to be a little like reading The Selfish Gene (which I did read in print), since, like that book, The Blank Slate was written to eliminate the residual shown-to-be-incorrect theories that were preventing good research from being done and/or being accepted in the author's field - in Dawkins' case, biology, and in Pinker's, social science. So, if you have some background in social science, this book won't contain too many surprises for you, but it is a great demonstration about just how much we know - even over a decade ago when the book was written - about nature versus nurture and how large a role nature plays.

This is a very accessible book for anyone, since it doesn't talk down to the reader (a pet peeve of mine) but it does describe things well in plain language and doesn't use jargon without explaining it first. I'm having a baby in a little over a month and it was good to read this book because it reminds parents that they cannot shape much of their children's personalities (except by giving them genes) and that being a good parent is enough - don't let marketers or "experts" fool you into thinking you have to be supermom or superdad to have a happy, smart, well-adjusted kid. You can teach your kid skills, like reading, but you can't change innate things about them like how extroverted they are.

Overall, I enjoyed the content and I found the narration easy to listen to. Five stars all around.

Great book

I wish more people working in the university system would read books like this.

Deep dive into nurture vs nature.

I think to a large extent, the concepts put forth in this book are really just common sense. But too many people that are in a position to influence society seem to be too smart by half or are more interested in pushing their own or some popularized agenda than pursuing truth and understanding. Pinker comes along with facts supported by logic and thoroughly cited sources and boils down and dispels many of of the silly theories promulgated by so many of today's modern thinkers and teachers. I found myself feeling gratified and relieved that common sense might still prevail.

One of my most trusted sources.

Everything I have read or listened to, by Steven Pinker has somehow changed my thinking in some way, this book was no exception. I trust his research, and trust that his thinking would change with the best evidence at the time. I am constantly searching for truth and knowledge, Steven Pinker has never let me down.