Human Nature and the Blank Slate
Name
Institution Human Nature and the Blank Slate
In his book, The blank slate, Steven Pinker argues that every human is born with some natural traits and that evolutionary psychological adaptations substantially impacts the human behavior. Whereas the book received a lot of praise from various scholars, it also received a good deal of criticism and inspired several controversies. In the video, Human nature and the blank slate, Pinker seeks to support his thesis and explore why some people considered the book as incredibly upsetting.
Pinker introduces his argument by stating that his book was based on “The blank slate” argument of the 20th century, which posited that the humans are born with a blank slate …show more content…
Consequently, the blank slate notion that the human mind is chiefly influenced by culture, socialization, parenting and experience is flawed. This is underpinned by the argument of the Mallifert twins who, despite different socialization and experiences maintained a striking similarity in behavior. Nonetheless, a degree of the strawman fallacy may be pointed out in SPinker’s argument; for instance, the speaker does not provide for cases of identical twins where significant differences of personality have been observed or cases where consistent parenting and socialization developed non-identical siblings with very similar character.
Pinker’s argument with regards to the decline in the arts seems a bit also detached from the key theme of human nature against the blank slate notion. One can however single out the connection between the decline in art and the denial of human nature brought about by the modernism and post-modernism movements. It appears that by socializing mankind to believe that the human mind is initially a blank slate has led to the observed decline in art since believe in talents and gifts has
Name
Institution Human Nature and the Blank Slate
In his book, The blank slate, Steven Pinker argues that every human is born with some natural traits and that evolutionary psychological adaptations substantially impacts the human behavior. Whereas the book received a lot of praise from various scholars, it also received a good deal of criticism and inspired several controversies. In the video, Human nature and the blank slate, Pinker seeks to support his thesis and explore why some people considered the book as incredibly upsetting.
Pinker introduces his argument by stating that his book was based on “The blank slate” argument of the 20th century, which posited that the humans are born with a blank slate …show more content…
Consequently, the blank slate notion that the human mind is chiefly influenced by culture, socialization, parenting and experience is flawed. This is underpinned by the argument of the Mallifert twins who, despite different socialization and experiences maintained a striking similarity in behavior. Nonetheless, a degree of the strawman fallacy may be pointed out in SPinker’s argument; for instance, the speaker does not provide for cases of identical twins where significant differences of personality have been observed or cases where consistent parenting and socialization developed non-identical siblings with very similar character.
Pinker’s argument with regards to the decline in the arts seems a bit also detached from the key theme of human nature against the blank slate notion. One can however single out the connection between the decline in art and the denial of human nature brought about by the modernism and post-modernism movements. It appears that by socializing mankind to believe that the human mind is initially a blank slate has led to the observed decline in art since believe in talents and gifts has