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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 by embracing three linked 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). ...
The blank slate is the doctrine that the mind has no unique structure and that its entire organization comes from the environment via socialization and learning. The blank slate mentality is popular with people who believe that any human trait can be altered with the right changes in social institutions. ...
The idea of the blank slate does not take into account that the brain does not have an innate structure. ...
He discusses how the blank slate has a great moral appeal because it is a guarantor of equality.
The idea is that, if newborns are born with different things inscribed on their slate, this could lead to three evils Pinker discusses. ...
These laws have not really been taken into account because intellectuals have been so engulfed in the idea of the blank slate.
Approximate Word count = 1166
Approximate Pages = 4.7
(250 words per page double spaced)
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