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The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature written by Steven Pinker was published in 2002. It was the best-selling book of 2002 that argues about the adaptation of human behavior by evolutionary psychology. Pinker talks about the three inter-related doctrines challenged by the modern science. The three doctrines or dogmas comprise the leading examination of the human nature in scholarly life. First one is the blank slate that means that the mind does not have any inborn qualities and it is like a clean slate. Second one is the noble savage which means human is born good but despoiled by the environment and society. Third is the ghost from the machine that means every individual makes the choices by himself irrespective of the biology. Pinker also examines the uncertainties of social and political consequences of his observation of human personality. He discusses the fear of inequality, the fear of imperfectability, the fear of nihilism and the fear of determinism. He argues about the various aspects of these fears in most of his book and deals with them from different angles.
Steven Pinker fears the threat if the theory of blank slate of human mind was true. He argues that for the political impartiality, it is not must to have the same kind of people as every individual is treated with equal rights. Similarly, for moral progress in the society, there is no requirement of having individuals with no self-motives. The responsibility have motives to counteract self-motives of individuals. The process of shaping the clean slate of brain should not necessarily have a purpose, but it is important that brain itself should have a purpose. Nullifying the moral values in response to the idea of a blank slate leads to the possibility of being refuted by the future experimental breakthroughs. Pinker writes that supposedly if every individual had equal qualities and abilities, then the requirement of giving equal opportunity to every individual arises. Similarly, if there are people with less inborn abilities with no fault of their own, they deserve to be treated accordingly and in line with the other individuals with same inborn qualities. People have different goals and objectives in their lives and therefore few are rich and few are poor. There is very often a voice about the reduction in inequality, but it is important to understand that low social status itself is a great source of psychological stress and results in dangerous behavior of the people from that category. Creation of public policies for the social welfare with the help of public support suggests that people opposition to the welfare is due their sense of fairness and not the greed.
Steven Pinker begins with the discussion on problems with the four doctrines. He says that the clean slate does not do anything as no one can rebuff the importance of learning, culture and socialization in all spheres of human life. He objects to the idea of blank slate basing on the argument that modern science has threatened the existence of inborn wisdom. The existence of different senses in the new born babies indicates no clean slate exists. New born babies have the senses of numbers, the voice, the language instinct and thoughts and feelings. Even twin babies separated in the childhood and examined as adult did show the astonishing similarities in their personalities. He also objects to the doctrine of noble savage in the light of findings of modern science of mind, brain, genes and evolution. The inherited traits involve the dominance of traits such as tendency towards violence, psychopathy and lack of consciousness. Brian mechanics are found to be associated with aggression and evolutionary psychology has understood the conflict in human affairs. Pinker writes that doctrine of the ghost in the machine has been most threatened by the modern science. It is established through cognitive science that emotions, motives and goals can be well understood in cybernetics terms as mechanism of feedback and control. Neuroscience shows that all human experiences, thoughts, yearnings, feelings are part of psychological activity in the human brain. Mind runs on the electrical impulses and these pulses can be recorded by the signatures of thoughts and emotions. Brain being a chemical organ where hundred billion neurons are interconnected by a hundred trillion synapses, in accordance with the staggering complexity of thoughts and behavior.
Steven Pinker discusses the four key issues that are at discussion in the debate of human nature. He discusses in detail, the fear of inequality, the fear of imperfectability, the fear of determinism and the fear of nihilism. These fears do not rise out of the recent discoveries by the science as the discoveries are no complex that they are unable to identify the implications of those discoveries. He discusses the four fear one by one. The first fear of inequality talks about the clean slate. If there is a clean slate, every individual must be equal just like the mathematical truism of zero equals zero equals zero. But according to this fear if the mind has some inborn organization, then people from different races, sexes and individuals would be biologically different. The difference will automatically condone the prejudice and oppression. Steven discusses the second fear of imperfectability by questioning as if the bad traits such as selfishness, violence or prejudice are inborn and unchangeable, then society’s efforts to improve human’s social behavior would be a waste and will render the human indifferent to the welfare measures being taken by the government. Having ignoble motives trigger the ignoble behavior as the human mind is a complex of many parts and some of them counteract each other. These include the moral sense that allows humans to learn from history and the executive system of the frontal lobes of the brain that determines the consequences of a particular behavior and moral values. The third fear of human nature is the fear of determinism. If biology is responsible for the behavior of a person, then the person cannot be blamed for the bad behavior as he is made like that. When someone is held responsible, the contingencies of their behavior like reward, punishment, credit and blame are imposed on the person. These contingencies are the causes of behavior that are imposed to correct the behavior in future. The fourth fear is the fear of nihilism which means that biology strips the meaning and purpose of life. The fear expects love, beauty, morality and the precious things held by the people are due to their selfish motives. The reason for existence of a human is simply to pass on the genes. The fear of nihilism has two aspects of religion and secularism. Religious version describes the soul seeking the comfort in fulfilling the God’s purpose for the reward in the afterlife. The day people will stop believing in the soul, it will cause the downfall of all values; social and moral.
Steven Pinker is considered as an authority on the subject of mind. Pinker is a witty writer and he makes the intimidating subject worth reading and interesting. His book is one of the best books published in the current century, and has been considered as the first rate writing and a stylish piece of work. In the Blank Slate, Steven Pinker tries to communicate the philosophy of evolutionary psychology and an algorithmic theory of mind to the common public. The book describes the basic concepts of psychology and inspires the psychoanalysts to have a deeper look on the issue. He presents a contemporary theory of humanity from the perspective of human behavior that incorporates the findings from cognitive science, biology, neurosciences and evolutionary psychology. Pinker discusses the very basic issues that are normally not considered for discussion being very minor in nature. The clarity on the very minor but basic issues leads to better understanding of the subject.
The declaration of mind as an immaterial substance does not go along with the modern discoveries of science on the brain. Pinker has not been successful in speaking both as a psychologist and a biologist. Laying of foundation for understanding the human nature in a naturalistic manner loses his credibility when he says that biological facts and the human moral values are two different characteristics. His total arguments base on the understanding of all human thoughts and behavior as the co-product of neurophysiology and the natural selection. He fears that understanding the ethics and values in naturalistic terms will lead to the possibility where people will not assume the responsibility of their actions. It will result in grave consequences as everyone will have the similar reason’ “It did it because my genes are like this”. Pinker has tried to explore the idea that biology has given the humans the urges to compete, and that way he closes to the concept of a physical conflict. Biological tendencies ultimately lead humans to a compromise where a person controls some of the biological tendencies and thus keeps himself in the defined parameters of behavior of living in a civilized society.
The article suggests the dominant theory of human nature in the contemporary intellectual life is based on the doctrines of the blank slate, the noble savage and the ghost in the machine; however, these doctrines are continuously under challenges by the discoveries of the modern sciences of mind, brain, genes and evolution. These challenges also seem to threaten the sacred moral values too.
References
Steven Pinker. (2002). The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
