The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human NatureViking, 2002 - 509 páginas Our conceptions of human nature affect everything aspect of our lives, from child-rearing to politics to morality to the arts. Yet many fear that scientific discoveries about innate patterns of thinking and feeling may be used to justify inequality, to subvert social change, and to dissolve personal responsibility. In The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker explores the idea of human nature and its moral, emotional, and political colorings. He shows how many intellectuals have denied the existence of human nature and instead have embraced three dogmas: The Blank Slate (the mind has no innate traits), The Noble Savage (people are born good and corrupted by society), and The Ghost in the Machine (each of us has a soul that makes choices free from biology). Each dogma carries a moral burden, so their defenders have engaged in desperate tactics to discredit the scientists who are now challenging them. Pinker provides calm in the stormy debate by disentangling the political and moral issues from the scientific ones. He shows that equality, compassion, responsibility, and purpose have nothing to fear from discoveries about an innately organized psyche. Pinker shows that the new sciences of mind, brain, genes, and evolution, far from being dangerous, are complementing observations about the human condition made by millennia of artists and philosophers. All this is done in the style that earned his previous books many prizes and worldwide acclaim: irreverent wit, lucid exposition, and startling insight on matters great and small. |
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Página 220
... intuitive physics , which we use to keep track of how objects fall , bounce , and bend . Its core intuition is the concept of the object , which oc- cupies one place , exists for a continuous span of time , and follows laws of motion ...
... intuitive physics , which we use to keep track of how objects fall , bounce , and bend . Its core intuition is the concept of the object , which oc- cupies one place , exists for a continuous span of time , and follows laws of motion ...
Página 223
... intuitive impetus- based physics.14 They cannot learn modern biology until they unlearn their intuitive biology , which thinks in terms of vital essences . And they cannot learn evolution until they unlearn their intuitive engineering ...
... intuitive impetus- based physics.14 They cannot learn modern biology until they unlearn their intuitive biology , which thinks in terms of vital essences . And they cannot learn evolution until they unlearn their intuitive engineering ...
Página 230
... intuitive biology begins with the concept of an invisible essence residing in living things , which gives them their form and powers . These es- sentialist beliefs emerge early in childhood , and in traditional cultures they dominate ...
... intuitive biology begins with the concept of an invisible essence residing in living things , which gives them their form and powers . These es- sentialist beliefs emerge early in childhood , and in traditional cultures they dominate ...
Contenido
The Blank Slate the Noble Savage | 1 |
Fear and Loathing | 103 |
Human Nature with a Human Face | 137 |
Derechos de autor | |
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ability African Americans American animals argue behavior behavioral genetics believe biologist biology Blank Slate Boston Globe brain called Cambridge cause Chagnon Chapter child cognitive cognitive neuroscience concept conflict connectionism cortex Cosmides crime culture Daly & Wilson doctrine emotions environment ethnic evolution evolutionary psychology evolved example explain fact fear feminism gender genes genetic genome heritability human nature idea identical twins images individual innate intellectual intelligence intuitions John Tooby kind language learning Lewontin living logic male mental mind moral natural selection neural neurons neuroscience Noble Savage organism parents person philosopher Pinker Plomin political punishment rape reason reciprocal altruism scientific scientists sense sexual siblings social Social Darwinism society Sociobiology soul species stereotypes theory things thought tion Tooby traits Trivers understanding University Press violence Vision visual visual cortex women words wrote Yanomamö York