The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven PinkerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
This is an impressive, lengthy support for an out-sized contributions of inheritable characteristics to human behavior. It is quite humbling to think so much of what makes each of us unique was encoded into our genome before we were born. Pinker takes apart support for any appreciable nurturing/environmental role block by block, but I am sure it does not settle this debate. Hinting that some of the worst human behaviors may be inherent will raise many hackles, and indeed all that will read a work of this breadth will be offended by something. I was offended by the casual remarks on inhumane animal experiments: rewiring ferret brains for synæsthesia and paralyzing animal fetuses in the womb to study join development disturbed me. When I see such broad environments as North Korea's hermit kingdom, chronically impoverished communities and such incident as coin flips picking guards and prisons in the Stanford Prison Experiment I feel he underplays the role of environment, while his arguments are strong, reasoned and supported.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment